A Hope for the Future
by zheuse
Summary: The Endeavor Project was a chance for a father to give a future for his children and grandchildren, away from the chaos of the wars and governments of the Empire and New Republic. The politics may be different, but enemies will always exist, and maybe allies as well. PROLOGUE AND CHAPTER 32 POSTED
1. Prologue

A/N: I am reworking the entire fic. I am not changing the plot much, but there will be some changes. I will be pulling down ALL CHAPTERS and re-posting them once fixed. I do apologize for the confusion this will cause, however, I realized I have a lot of continuity issues to fix as well as timeline issues. Some things I moved too fast on and kinda used ships that were not yet built. So I am fixing it.

There will also be some new scenes that I should never have left out.

I have no problem with constructive criticism, but please no griping about a character living who died, or who died that should have lived, in the show. As long as you keep it polite, we are good.

I must also mention that this story is AU, meaning it will NOT follow canon. Since I am introducing a new player into the SGA universe, there will be changes (Chaos Theory).

I will be posting info on the new ship types (at the end of each chapter) as they are introduced in story. Some are going to be renamed as they are modified enough to be a separate ship class. If a ship is not shown, you should be able to find it on the wiki page for Star Wars (Legends not Canon)

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing except original characters and will be making no profit off this story. If I owned Stargate or Star Wars, and their respective franchises, you would never see or hear from me again except in tabloids and gossip shows depicting my hedonistic endeavors reminiscent of a Dionysian Bacchanal.

Now on to what you really want to see.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. {queue intro music}

(Sorry, couldn't help it.)

* * *

PROLOGUE

Glass of whiskey in hand, Elmar Hylar stood alone, staring out the observation window of the Jubilee Wheel space station in orbit around his home-world of Ord Mantell. His eyes were fixed on a point in space where his family had made the jump into hyperspace. He saw his faint reflection in the transparasteel window, a worn out man. He slumped down into the padded seat behind him, finally allowing himself to relax. As he stared at the ceiling, his mind began playing over the memories of what brought this to pass.

Elmar had come up with the idea for the Endeavor Project over twenty years ago, when he first held his newborn son in his hands before the fall of the Empire. After seeing the fall of the Old Republic, the rise and fall of the Empire, and birth of the New Republic, he knew his decision was correct. Twenty-four years of planning, designing, gathering equipment, and building had taken nearly every credit he had. Hundreds of millions of credits had been spent in secret over the years, including the money received from selling the Hylar Construction Products Corp. It had been started by his family twelve generations ago, and had become the largest and most profitable supplier of construction equipment in three sectors.

In Elmar's mind, it had been worth it for his descendants to be out of the reach of galactic politics and war. It being his sixtieth lifeday, he considered it the greatest gift he could receive, a better future for his children and grandchildren. He did not want them to grow up in chaos and despair as so many did.

The idea had been relatively simple, but simple does not mean the same as easy. If no place in the galaxy was safe and stable, then go elsewhere. He remembered the holovid news about the Outbound Flight before the fall of the Old Republic and the fanfare that had accompanied it. Elmar did not want the attention or publicity associated with Outbound Flight, and that meant most of what he had to do had been done in secret.

The planning had taken nearly a decade. Elmar spent hours each day pouring over ideas, designs, and logistical nightmares before he settled on something far easier. Since distance between galaxies was so vast, far more efficient to have everyone in stasis pods for most of the trip. Things had popped into place after that epiphany.

Being an engineer by education and trade, Elmar had decided to do what he could to make the best chance of success for the Endeavor Project. First was the ships, he couldn't buy all of them outright without creating unwanted scrutiny. He did however pay a freelance spy almost a two hundred thousand credits for the original blueprints and schematics of the Rendili StarDrive _Dreadnaught_ class heavy cruiser. Three years of hard work resulted in a ship nearly identical from the outside as the near one hundred year old warship design. And that is where the similarities ended.

While he jokingly referred to the new design as the _Ingot_ class cruiser, these new _Dreadnaughts_ would have the advantages of a century of improved technology and experience in their upgraded design. Instead of massive crews or thousands of droids in their place, he redesigned the interior to be mostly automated. Most of the crew quarters were removed since the new design would run on a total crew of two hundred. The new bridge, crew quarters, and hypermatter reactor were all inside an armored central core. The space between the core and the normal outer hull was partitioned into cargo holds separated by high strength hull support beams connecting the central core with the outer hull. The fighter bay was completely removed to make room for more cargo holds. There would still need to be a maintenance crew of droids, however, there would be far fewer.

The defenses were greatly upgraded. Improved shields worthy of a _Victory II_ Star Destroyer combined with thirty percent thicker armor plating made from newer alloys would give the project a much greater chance of success should they be intercepted.

Much had changed in the propulsion as well. The old _Dreadnaughts_ were known for poor speed and maneuverability. They had been scrapped in favor of newer engines with much better performance. By Elmar's estimates, they would be able to keep pace with New Republic X-wings. Modern hyperspace engines would boost the speed as well with a fifty percent increase.

The weapons systems also received several modifications. The number and type of weapons had been changed, and the latest versions were employed. This boosted the punch the ship could hit an attacker and either drive them away or destroy them entirely. Part of the crew reduction meant that each turret had its own droid brain instead of a gunner. Three fire control officers on the bridge would be able to control the entire compliment of the ship's weapons. The droid brains would handle the aiming and firing once the orders had been received.

While this new design would likely be able to fight a _Victory_ Star Destroyer to a standstill in a one on one fight, Elmar had the problem of getting them actually built. He doubted he could get any of the shipyards to work on it, since he had stolen the plans and would likely end up in prison. Which meant he had to do it himself, far away from anyone's notice.

It took four more years for him to research and develop his own shipyard. This he had done in public, as it was a product he could sell if any planetary governments could afford it. He combined the core idea of a construction droid with a three hundred meter cargo barge. The end result was a mobile shipyard dock. It would only build one ship at a time, and was not aesthetically pleasing, but it would allow someone to build ships of their own design as long as two of three dimensions were under one hundred fifty meters. While one tug could tow it to any location in a system, it operated most efficiently when at least five tugs fed asteroids or scrap into the maw of the construction droid section.

The first twelve mobile shipyards sold paid for the development of a much more effective and versatile shipyard, _Toy Maker_. It was a vast improvement over the dozen mobile shipyards he had sold. Unlike it's predecessors, it was expandable and modular. Designed to be the foundation of an orbital shipyard rivaling Kuat Drive Yards, it would be able to build duplicates that could boost ship building time and ship size. Since it was completely automated, and no workers needed for the actual building of ships, shipbuilding would proceed much faster than anywhere else. _Toy Maker_ would be able to build one of the new modified Dreadnaughts in six days. Once expanded to handle the size, no ship, no matter how massive, would take longer than two months.

Once _Toy Maker_ was ready, he moved it to a backwater system with no inhabitable planets or moons. There it remained, in orbit of a massive gas giant, eating rock and debris from the rings in orbit of the same planetary body. The first _Ingot_ to come off the line Elmar named _Hope_ and the second _Future._ Next came the framework that would link these two ships together, and support the five others that would accompany it. Two of the ships would be simple cargo barges, one would be the mobile shipyard itself, one other would be a mobile factory for use in the surface of the planet they settled on, and the final ship would be a passenger ship.

The final assembly took place only a year before launch. The central ship being the passenger ship that would hold nearly twenty one hundred stasis pods. The framework held that ship in place with a _Ingot_ per side, one port and one starboard. The framework was nearly four hundred meters in length from bow to stern, and would hold the _Ingots_ almost two hundred meters outside the passenger ship. The flat barges, factory, and shipyard would attach to top and bottom of each arm of the support frame.

Other logistical issues also required attention. Supplies and equipment for the passengers to start a new life. The farm equipment and droids were easy to acquire as well as cheap. All manner of items were purchased quietly, including speeders, construction equipment, droids, food, seeds, prefab buildings, comm gear, medical equipment, mining machines, weapons, and armor. Unfortunately, there was not enough room for all of the items he wished he could send, nor could he afford or acquire some of the more expensive needs.

While Elmar was not a violent person, and disliked its use, he did understand the need for protection. For him this meant almost a thousand blasters, one hundred automated turrets, a thousand sets of storm trooper armor, as well as several armored vehicles. These items were not hard to find, but purchasing them legally would have raised red flags with local and sector government. Black market purchases cost more, however, they were not traced easily.

Educational material was also included, as much as Elmar could copy. By the time of departure, enough resources for education has been acquired that any university in the galaxy would have been envious of the library Elmar had accumulated. History, art, music, math, science, and many more subjects had entire crates of data cards devoted to individual subjects. Teaching droids were also added to the multitude of other gear stowed in the cargo holds.

The most difficult part, or so it seemed, was finding the right people to take part in this project. The first four people to be included were his son Kaden, and Kaden's wife Lin, and their two children Mira and Tabica. The numbers grew slowly at first, and they were mostly employees of his company. The requirements were simple for the most part. All participants must be married and under forty years old. If couples wanted to bring children, no child could be under six years old. The most important requirement would be secrecy. Elmar and Kaden spent nearly a decade finding the right people, good hard working people, to invite on this project. The final recruits had been found only a month before launch. Elmar was happy to have found a decent range of skills among the recruits. Almost one hundred fifty current and former soldiers would make the core defense force once they arrived at their destination. Then there were the engineers, geologists, scientists, doctors, teachers, farmers, and craftsmen.

The first passengers began arriving on the Jubilee Wheel two weeks before departure, then boarded private shuttles to the ships. As soon as their personal gear was stowed, they entered the stasis pods. The last shuttle out included Kaden and his family. It had not been easy to say goodbye. Elmar knew he would never see them again. Tears had flowed from the eyes of his granddaughters as they didn't want to leave Elmar behind.

As Elmar sat in the observation lounge, finishing off his whiskey, alarms began to sound. He opened his eyes to see hundreds of flashes out in orbit of Ord Mantell, flashes of ships weapons and explosions. Slowly he stood, still holding the empty glass. Peering out the window, he watched as ships he had never seen before approached the Jubilee Wheel. They appeared to be ships made of rock, moving swiftly through the meager defenses Ord Mantell had hastily assembled only a few months ago. The old man smiled. His family made it out before the arrival of the latest galactic problem. The Yuuzhan Vong were sweeping across the sector on a steady march across the galaxy. Billions dead, maybe trillions, and they were unstoppable.

Elmar closed his eyes as the battle moved closer. Even as the Jubilee Wheel station shook from the impacts of Vong weapons, he stood silent and already knowing of the outcome of this battle. He never saw the super heated rock that slammed into the window less than a meter in front of him.

* * *

 **Ship Stats** (for those interested)

 _Ingot_ Heavy Cruiser:

modified _Dreadnaught_ heavy cruiser

600 x 116 x 123 meters

15 Dual Turbolasers, 21 Quad turbolaser cannons

200 crew

39,000 tons cargo

1 shuttle

 _Toy Maker_

mobile shipyard

125 x 500 x 100 meters (when in mobile configuration)

350 x 1000 x 250 meters (when in build configuration)

2 Crew (in command center)

1 shuttle

10 hyperspace capable cargo tugs (stored internally when in mobile configuration)


	2. 01 Pain

A/N: This is beginning about SIX YEARS prior to SGA S01E01. But it shouldn't take too long to get up to SGA intro.

* * *

Chapter One

Cold. Cold and pain greeted the crew of _Hope_ as they awakened from stasis. Kaden was not the first to scream out in agony, nor was he the last. Every nerve in his body cried out as one. As the pain in most of his body receded, it remained sharp in his eyes due to the lights of the room. It required several minutes of shivering as if in a seizure to regain control of his movements; and as his eyes began to focus, he could see the others in the room undergoing the same excruciating awakening.

"Are you all right, sir?" asked an MD-5 droid which stood near Kaden.

"I think so, but I am not sure why waking up was so painful. I have tested these stasis pods before and never have I had such a bad reaction to being revived."

"It is likely due to the duration of your time in stasis. My records show no one has ever spent as long a time in stasis in all of galactic history"

A chill, unrelated to his time in stasis, surged up his spine. "We should have only been in stasis for six or seven months. How long were we in stasis?"

"Approximately nine thousand four hundred eighty three years and twenty seven days, sir."

Stunned, Kaden nearly collapsed back onto the bed in the stasis chamber. Something must have gone very wrong to have kept them from arriving at their destination within a year, and they were over nine millennia beyond that point. Raising his voice, Kaden announced "Everyone get dressed when you can. Get something to eat then get to your stations. I want to know where we are and what is nearby. Supervisors meet me in the conference room in one hour."

Various voices, some still raw and cracked, replied in agreement as two dozen other medical droids moved through the crew.

* * *

Kaden sat in a chair at a oval table as the team leaders entered the room. A few still seemed to be suffering from the residual effects of the long term stasis; however, most appeared to be as close to recovered as he himself was. Communications, maintenance, quartermaster, medical, security, and navigation each took seats in the open chairs around the table.

"Ok. What have we figured out so far, other than we have been asleep for over nine thousand years and not where we should be?"

Mordius Kenas, the leader of the maintenance team, spoke first. "Well, the ship is still working. I would say at about sixty percent. Two of the engines are dead as well as about half our weapons. Our shield generators are also down. We still have full structural integrity though, so no atmosphere leaks or danger of decompression."

"Any idea as to how long it would take to fix?"

"I am not sure on the engines and weapons, but the shields appear to be fairly easy to fix. Maybe a few hours on those. I sent the maintenance droids to get a closer look at the engines and weapons. Should know more on repair estimates in a few hours."

"It could be worse, I suppose" Kaden murmured. "We should have spare parts for almost everything on the ship in one of the bow cargo holds, if I remember correctly."

"Yes sir." Mordius replied.

"Quartermaster, how are we doing on supplies and fuel?" Kaden's question was expected by Dera Kirek, the quartermaster team lead.

"Most of the consumables appear to be ok, however, some of the food storage containers lost power at some point and their contents will need to be disposed of. I already have some of the droids dumping the bad food now. I estimate we have about three quarters of our original food supplies left undamaged. I haven't had the chance to check over everything yet, but I think the non-perishable items we have in storage are all ok. As for fuel, we are down to twenty percent of our hypermatter fuel for the reactor. So we have a few months at most before we need to have either a new fuel supply, or we are stranded."

"Doing better than I expected considering how long we have been asleep. I hope we can find a place to go before that happens." Kaden looked to the Navigation team leader. "So what have you been able to determine so far?"

"You may not like this." Hon Mai responded. "Our original destination was to move to a galaxy near the edge of our galactic cluster. We seem to have gone a bit beyond that. We are in a neighboring cluster now. About two dozen galaxies in this cluster, and we are about two weeks away from one of the smaller ones. From what I have been able to see, it appears the closest galaxy is a irregular dwarf galaxy. It would seem to be our only option given our fuel limitations. There are twenty seven galaxies in this group, several of them quite large."

"That is good news. How are we on the medical front?" Kaden inquired.

"We lost two. One from the weapons team, and one from engineering. Their stasis pods worked, but the stress of reviving caused too much nerve and heart damage." Kisa Nerat was not happy with losing someone on her watch

"Damn. That is something I was afraid of. We have over two thousand people on _Memory_ , including all the children. Is there any way to wake them slowly? To reduce the stress on their bodies?"

"Already working on it. I would recommend not waking anyone else up before we can determine if there is a safer way." Kisa did not want to lose anyone else.

"Agreed. I know we will lose some anyway, but lets keep it to as few as possible. Our families are all on that ship. Has there been any communication from _Memory_ or _Future_?"

Derik Cambir, communications team leader shook his head. "No. And I did check, our communications gear is working. Kaden bowed his head then dismissed all of them except for his security team leader.

Once they were the only two left in the room, Kaden asked "Who on your team has zero g experience?"

Koth thought for a moment, then replied "Myself and three others I know of for sure. As for the rest, I dont believe they have more than an hour in zero g. What did you have in mind?"

* * *

Thirty minutes later, eight men in zero g suits exited the dorsal airlock of the _Hope,_ four members of the security team and one each of the communications, maintenance, quartermaster, and navigation teams. Tethered together in a chain, they slowly made their way across the top of the ship toward _Memory_ and their goal, _Future_. It took nearly an hour, even with thrust packs, to make it to the second _Ingot_ , due to inexperience among the non-security personnel.

Opening the dorsal airlock of the _Future_ almost as long, due to lack of power. After determining the ship had no life support operational, and a temperature near absolute zero, they remained in their suits and split off to their assigned tasks.

Three hours of work resulted in the restoration of life support and the ship began to warm slowly. Air hissed through the reinitialized ventilation systems, spreading that warmth through the occupied areas. Communications was restored shortly afterward, allowing for updates and instructions from _Hope_.

Once the interior of _Future_ was within normal levels, the eight temporary crew removed their bulky suits. While useful, they were also frustrating when working on tasks requiring speed or dexterity. Without the added hindrance, tasks were completed much more quickly. Lights, gravity, and several other systems were brought online within a few minutes.

As the ships systems were being restarted, the Koth and his men went through the rooms with stasis pods, verifying they were still working. It was too bad they were never returning home, they would be able to give a rather confident testimony as to the durability and reliability of these pods, over nine thousand years and so far none of them had failed.

Overall, the _Future_ was in similar shape to the _Hope_. The largest difference was more hypermatter than what was left on _Hope_. Unfortunately none of the droids were still operational, their power cells having not been recharged in possibly centuries. Once the main power had been restored, that was easily remedied.

It ended up taking a total of ten hours to start up all primary and secondary systems, then slave them to the _Hope_. All that was needed now was to wait as Kaden would be able to control both ships. The eight token crew settled down in empty bunks to sleep while newly awakened maintenance droids began repairing the ships systems that had not been properly taken care of in millennia.

* * *

Kaden and the crew of the _Hope_ had not been idle during the ten hours it had taken to bring _Future_ back to operational status. Inventory, course plots, and repairs had occupied their time. Shields had been restored, as well as one of the two damaged engines. Weapons systems were now ninety-five percent operational, only one of the turret droid brains was completely unsalvagable.

It had been decided not to board the _Memory_ , as it was unneeded till they reached their destination. Once they reached a habitable planet, Kaden would send a small crew over to bring that ship back to operational. Tempting as it was to personally check on his family, it wouldn't be fair to the rest of his crew, and they have enough to worry about already.

Kaden and the navigation team had spent hours checking sensors for possible stars with habitable planets, as they were still much too far out to see any planets themselves. After hours of discussion a course was laid in, and the calculations complete, for a two week jump to a star cluster inside the edge of the nearest galaxy. They had to wait another twelve hours for the final checks to be complete on both ships, but they were ready. The combined ships and framework accelerated and in a streak of pseudo-motion, they entered hyperspace.


	3. 02 Decisions

Chapter two

A brief flash of light heralded the arrival of the _Endeavor Project_ to no one. No planets existed in orbit around this small yellow star. Not bright enough to be remarkable, and not enough gravity to bring order to the two hundred thousand kilometer wide disk of cosmic dust and rock in orbit around it. Fourteen billion years since the creating of the universe, and this barely noticeable star had seen no life, no planets, no comets, only dust.

The _Endeavor_ slowed to sublight speed quickly about ten thousand kilometers outside the asteroid belt. It was far enough away from the tiny star that the solar radiation would not affect it noticeably. Within a few minutes, nearly a hundred objects exited the cargo doors of the _Hope_. Only a meter and a half long, they were seen as a streak and flash as they entered hyperspace.

Probe droids had their uses, and these were not the military model so commonly see during the reign of the Empire. These were scientific probes, equipped with sensors for planetary exploration. They would exit hyperspace at their assigned time, then take scans of the system. Once the results were calculated for each spacial body within a set range, the droid brain would send a message to the parent vessel with the results.

The response given would direct the probe droid to its final destination, be it a moon, planet, rock, or to activate the self destruct. Almost half the droids ended up this way, destroyed by a small explosive charge buried in the center of the droid itself. All that would be left of them would be small pieces of scrap metal and shrapnel spreading out over a lifeless star system, never to be noticed by anyone.

Of the remaining forty three probe droids that did report planets or moons in the habitable range, thirty nine landed successfully. One was struck by a fast moving rock that shattered its droid brain and crushed the body. Two others burned up on re-entry, their braking thrusters failing completely. The fourth failure also had troubles with its braking thrusters, although they didn't completely fail. It survived reentry without burning up, however, it was still traveling at over two thousand kilometers an hour when it impacted an extremely hard flat surface and shattered into thousands of pieces, each smaller than a centimeter.

During the days of waiting for the probe droids to finish their analysis, the medical team leader worked out a way to bring the remaining twenty three hundred out of stasis without the excruciating agony and lethal stress to accompany it. By mixing two different painkillers into the normal awakening injection that started the process, as well as delaying the waking sequence for a few hours after body temperature was brought till normal, would allow the others to wake up sore, but with no intense pain. Once the new procedure was determined, the eight temporary crew from the _Hope_ began waking the crew of the _Future_.

Overall, it required nearly twenty hours to awaken the crew of the _Future_ completely. Once all of the crew were able to take their stations, the captain contacted the _Hope_. As the crew took over operations, the eight members of the crew of the _Hope_ returned the way they had come. Another four hours of conferencing between the captains and team leaders of each ship, everyone had the same information available as well as a plan on what they were doing.

Kaden was quiet as he was reading the reports from the remaining probe droids. Thirty nine star systems left with possible new homes for the crew and passengers. Some of them appeared promising and others would be rather harsh. He saw planets as dry as Tatooine or as wet as Mon Calamari, from jungles to grasslands as far as the eye could see on some planets.

Several of the probes had been attacked by local wildlife, to no real effect. Animal life was a plus as long as you were not on the menu yourself, and that caused the removal of several worlds. While the droids did have the ability to fly, several planets had flying predators of impressive size.

There were also several worlds that appeared to have ruins from some ancient civilization long gone. If the planet showed any signs of sentient life, it was removed from the possible home list. Be it ruins, or recently built primitive buildings, the planets and moons were ignored. Many of the planets, inhabited or abandoned, had a strange artificial circle either in orbit around the planet or sitting upright on the planet's or moon's surface. These planets were all marked as possibly inhabited by a space faring race, yet removed from the list of possibles.

Then there were planets with environmental concerns. A couple planets had no water at all and no chance of plant life. Several planets had almost no land mass above the water level, so they too were removed. Atmospheres not conducive to humanoid life didn't make the final list. The final planets cut from the list were planets with temperatures that were outside tolerable limits for the plant life they needed to grow for food.

By the time the list had been pruned down to the most hospitable planets in the surveyed systems, Kaden and the team leaders were left with two possible systems. It would be up to them to decide which planet they believed would give them the best chance at a future. One system had five inhabitable moons, but no planets able to be settled. The other had three inhabitable planets, as well as a pair of wide, mineral-rich asteroid belts between the inhabitable planets. A lengthy conference call between the two ships determined they would head to the second system due to the minerals in the asteroid belts, and a name for the star was chosen. "Promise"

Nineteen hours later, and running on fuel for the hypermatter reactors, the _Endeavor_ exited hyperspace in the Promise system. The system had six actual planets all on the same orbital plane: one barren rock, three inhabitable worlds, and two gas giants.

The innermost, Promise 1, was a small volcanic mass with a molten surface on the side that faced the star. Two "moons" orbited in rapid pace around it, both of which were more liquid than solid. Trailing Promise 1 in it's orbit, a trail of debris ejected from the planet formed a continuous loop around the star to reconnect with Promise 1 like a ring on the other side of the planet.

Between it and the first habitable planet, was a wide asteroid belt rich in metals. A dense field of rocks nearly eighty thousand kilometers wide and fifteen hundred kilometers thick carried the mass of nearly six inhabited worlds the size of Coruscant. Glinting reflections from the rocks showed evidence of crystals and metals embedded in the debris.

Promise 2 had a warm tropical climate with oceans covering nearly forty percent of the surface. Jungles interspersed with deep canyons made up the three uneven land surfaces would make farming difficult at best. The most likely landing locations were too small for any serious settlement without breaking up the passengers into four or five different locations. One moon in orbit, only eight percent it's size, decorated the sky in darkness and reflected light.

Promise 3 was covered mostly by grasslands interspersed with mountain ranges. It also had ice caps covering the poles leaving thirty percent of the surface covered with water. Two huge continents approximately the same size were separated by a small ocean on one side and a rather large one on the other. Both continents touched the ice caps on north and south ends. It was entirely possible they were really just one large land mass with a massive lake in the center. The probe droid had landed on this planet, and the vids sent back with the data transmissions revealed images of abundant small to medium animal life with no noticeable predators of any significant danger. It also had more farmable and developable land than Promise 2. This planet was the most likely prospect for a permanent settlement with plenty of room to expand in the future. Two moderate sized moons circled the planet, on the same orbit but always opposite sides of the planet.

The ice on Promise 4 covered almost seventy percent of the planet, with the only visible land being in a belt around the equator. No oceans or liquid water was visible from space, and the rock surface that was accessible was covered in very difficult mountainous terrain. While not usable as a permanent settlement for the crews and passengers, it may be able to be mined at a later time if needed.

The second asteroid belt was even larger than the first. Nearly two hundred thousand kilometers wide and almost five thousand thick, it made up the bulk of the non-stellar mass of the entire system. The rock had the mass of almost a thousand planets, but spread out as it was, only served to insulate the inner planets from rogue comets and asteroids.

Promise 5 was a blue-green gas giant about a tenth the size of the system star. Supersonic wind currents in alternating bands gave the planet a layered appearance with very thin lavender bands between the blue and green layers. Nineteen small moons, some of rock and others of ice, danced around the monster planet in chaos.

Promise 6 was only a quarter the size of Promise 5, but without the strong wind currents, appeared as a solid orb of amber. Only six moons made their way around it in a very tight set of orbits, not quite close enough to touch the outer edges of the atmosphere.

The command crews of the _Future_ and _Hope_ spent hours going over surveys of Promise 3, checking various topography and geography. They were still on their own ships, using the conference rooms and communications systems for video. There were a multitude of possible landing sites available both near the oceans or near the mountain ranges. The trouble was picking which one they wanted to use for the colony.

Kaden called attention to one spot in particular. "This location, number one forty two, has everything we will need. Fresh water coming off the mountains on these two rivers nearby. It is also in a protected area from what we can see of the natural weather patterns. The mountain range here curves around it on three sides leaving an area around one hundred ten square kilometers enclosed on three sides with an opening to about five thousand square kilometers of grasslands on the fourth side."

A few murmurs of agreement were heard then the conference rooms of the two ships emptied for all except for the captains.

Nera Mandat, captain of the _Future_ , was concerned. "We will have to spend more time setting up sensors if we are blocking line of sight from the settlement. If someone does show up, we may not see them unless we install a second set along the top of the mountain ridge. While I do like the idea of being protected from high winds and bad weather, I prefer to be protected. I saw the images of the rings on the planets and in space the probe droids sent back, just like you did. There is a good chance there are others out there moving around in space, and I don't like being blind on three sides."

"You have a point, and I think you are right, extra sensors on both sides of the mountains then. We can also put some sensor satellites in orbit as well once we get settled. I want to get the people down on solid ground, they have been frozen in time for too long."

Nera exhaled softly, "True, we have been in space too long. I think much longer than any other person I have ever heard of. I will send twenty people over to the _Memory_ to get started bringing that ship to operational status, well, after we all get some actual sleep. Nine thousand years in stasis, and I am tired after only thirty hours awake."

Kaden chuckled. "I can understand that feeling. How about we both run skeleton crews for the next six hours, then we both send teams to the _Memory_ to get her going again as well as checking on the passengers. Once we get the barges and droids on the ground, then we can wake up the families. Any sooner would be counter productive if we have no place for them to stay. _Memory_ was only designed for a total of a thousand people over a week, not for what we used her for."

"Agreed. Tomorrow we can begin to build our new home."


	4. 03 Touchdown

Chapter Three

Colony (Year 0, Day 1)

With twenty members of each crew from both the _Hope_ and _Future_ , it did not take very long to bring _Memory_ back to operational. Only a few hours in total were needed to repair any damage and re-power the ship. Koth made the unfortunate discovery less than an hour after boarding; however, was unable to inform the two _Ingots_ until communications had been restored almost two hours later.

" _Hope_ , this is _Memory_. We have some bad news here. Please go secure." Koth had already cleared the bridge on _Memory_ for this conversation.

"This is Kaden, go ahead. I am the only one who can hear you."

"I am not sure exactly what happened, but one of the stasis pod rooms failed. Everyone in the room eight is dead."

Kaden slumped into his seat on the bridge of the _Hope_. "Damn. Do you have their names?"

"Yeah. I knew some of them from before. Devark, my XO is going to be devastated."

"Send me the list on secure comm. Nera and I will do the notifications. Other than the living relatives, we tell no one til everyone is safe down on the planet. Understood?"

"Yes, sir. May want to plan a ceremony or something to help deal with it."

"Agreed. Let me know if anything else has happened." Kaden signed off, then started going through the names.

One hundred twenty nine of the passengers on the _Memory_ were dead. Where once men, women, and children slept, now existed a room full of corpses. Twenty six families wiped out, as well as eight families of crew members of the _Hope_ and _Future_. Kaden called the Twi'lek Devark and four humans to the conference room next to the bridge. Devark was one of the eight hundred fifty non-humans on the journey. His lekku twitched slightly when he entered the room and saw the expression on Kaden's face.

Devark had been last to enter the room and asked as the door closed. "Who did we lose?"

"One hundred twenty nine gone. All of the people in stasis room eight."

Devark legs collapsed under him, leaving him half propped up on one arm. "My wife? Daughter? They are dead?"

The four others, already seated at the table were also in shock. One asked "Are you sure it was room eight?"

"Yes. Koth verified the names before sending me the list a few minutes ago. I know nothing can be said to change what has happened. I am very sorry for your loss. If you want to be relieved from duty for a while I understand. I only ask that none of you mention this yet. We will not announce what has happened until everyone else has been revived and is down on the planet."

"I am not sure how long this can be kept a secret. It will be noticed." Devark observed, regaining his composure. "I won't say anything. I would like to honor my family and handle their remains as my people require."

Kaden brought up the question "Devark. I know our two peoples have many differences both in religion and tradition. Would it be appropriate to have a joint ceremony in a week down on the planet? It would allow everyone who is there a chance to say goodbye to those we have lost."

"I think our families would be honored by it, Captain."

"Then you are all dismissed for now. If any of you need anything, come to me and I will help."

Adding to the devastating news was another problem on _Memory_. Her entire command crew had been in that stasis room. They were the last to enter stasis and had pods next to their families. The crews from _Hope_ and _Future_ were not as familiar with the passenger liner, and all of the qualified pilots for the ship were now gone. Now they would have to bring the remaining passengers out of stasis then ferry them down in the liner's two shuttles. It would take more time, and negate the secondary use of the liner as temporary housing while homes and other buildings were completed.

Nera Mandat contacted Hope over the comm, "Kaden, do you have a moment?"

"Sure, what can I do for you?"

"We wont be able to bring Memory in to land like we had planned. Everyone qualified to pilot it is gone. I am not willing to risk everything on a pilot who isnt comfortable and qualified."

"I agree, Nera. We will have to unload everything using the two shuttles on _Memory_. Damn. I just remembered why we were going to land the liner. Temporary housing was only part of it."

"I had forgotten that part. The power generator on that ship could power the entire settlement and three more the same size." She paused moment in thought. "I have an idea. We will have to unload everything first."

"What did you have in mind, Nera?"

"Lets get it unloaded first, then we can see if my idea will work."

Dera Kirek was in charge of setting up the town itself. She and her team spent almost five hours creating the layout for the buildings and defenses. Between security concerns, logistical concerns, and landscape concerns it was not a simple task. Several dozen layouts were drawn out then abandoned as they all had flaws. Once Dera remembered the _Memory_ would not be landing for a while, the final layout took shape in less than ten minutes.

The first ships to touch down were the two cargo barges they had brought with them. Each one was controlled by eight tugs, tugs usually used for moving very heavy cargo or asteroids. The barges themselves contained about forty thousand tons of equipment apiece. The factory barge was sent down next, to land outside the perimeter of the town itself, but well inside the defensive perimeter.

The cargo stored on the liner also had to be ferried down via shuttle instead of unloaded after landing. This delayed things considerably. The cargo in the liner including some of the primary components for the development. Secondary power generators, worker droids, and communications equipment had to be brought down before most of the other components for the new town could be assembled. It could take several days to move what was needed down to the planet. The ship's power generator had been planned to be the main power for the town.

She also released the mobile shipyard from its position on the framework, and set it into a geosynchronous orbit over the settlement. The tugs stored internally then began unfolding the shipyard so it could be used to repair any damage to the _Ingots_ or liner. The unfolding would require almost twelve hours before the shipyard would be ready to start up.

As this went on, the two shuttles from _Memory_ began moving cargo off the ship and unloading it on the planet. Half the worker droids were brought down before any actual cargo as they needed them to assemble buildings and move the heavy equipment. The other half remained on _Memory_ to load cargo into the shuttles. Until all the cargo was ferried to the planet, no setup was started. It would be much faster to get everything down first before beginning on the construction. The result was a very tired crew, and almost fifty round trips by each shuttle before the last of the cargo and worker droids were brought down. All that was left on _Memory_ was people and personal items.

Exhaustion ran counter to the impatience felt by the awakened crews, and caf would only keep them alert for so long. Kaden saw this and was forced to exercise his command authority. Since the droids were able to work unsupervised in most cases, he ordered all of the crew members to get at least eight hours rest. He was worried the lack of sleep would lead to mistakes, or worse.

"This is Captain Kaden. All personnel are to stand down from positions and head to your bunks. For the next eight hours, no work is to be done. Everyone is to drop what they are doing and get some rest."

The bridge crew turned to look at the captain, then almost as one, stood to walk off the bridge. Between he and Nera Mendat, captain of the _Future_ , they split the sleep time between them in case an emergency arose.

Once the crew members had rested, _Future_ began to deploy sensor satellites utilizing eight of the tugs from the shipyard barge. Fifty satellites spaced out around Promise 2, 3, and 4. No ships would be able to approach within five million kilometers of these three planets without an alarm being sounded on the bridges of both _Ingots_. Long term plans included spreading hundreds of satellites all over the system to complete the coverage; however that would take several months or more to build them.

"Kaden, the satellites are in position. We have sixteen positioned around each planet except Promise 3, it has eighteen. Would you mind if I started a complete sensor sweep with the satellites we have now?"

"Wonderful. And yes please do. The probe droid we sent here is great for scanning planets, but not well suited for searching an entire system for small objects."

"Starting it now. It will take a while to do the complete range of scans, but in a couple days we should know every object larger than a credit chit in the area."

 _Hope_ was not idle during this time. She disconnected from the framework and entered the atmosphere to land outside the town perimeter. Most warships could not do this, they were built in space, and stayed there. Entering an atmosphere with one usually meant a crash or incineration. _Hope_ and _Future_ both, having been redesigned by Kaden's father Elmar, had repulsorlift cradles attached to the ventral side of each of their hulls. Once they had landed and unloaded their cargo, the cradles could be removed and re-purposed for use elsewhere.

As Hope touched down, a veritable army of worker droids swarmed the opening cargo doors. Originally, the _Dreadnaught_ class only had a capacity for nine thousand tons of cargo. With far fewer crew needed for the new _Ingot_ design, extra cargo space had been created. Thirty thousand tons of cargo between the inner hull and the normal outer hull had an added benefit of an extra layer of armor if shooting started. When the cargo was removed, the loss of that much weight would make _Hope_ a faster and more maneuverable ship, far better performance than one of the old design.

It required almost two full twenty six hour days to unload the equipment and droids from the _Hope_. During this time, the town started to take form. The communications building was completed and operational, as well all of the apartment buildings for couples without children. Those residing in the apartments had been awakened from the _Memory_ , and brought down to assist with the building of the remaining structures. Two warehouses had also been assembled for food and medical supplies. The hospital was almost complete, only requiring the medical equipment to be moved inside and installed.

The next priority was housing. The families with children would all have their own individual homes set up around the town. Over three hundred families had just under five hundred children. They would also need things for them to do. A school was also scheduled to be assembled, as well as a library, and several playgrounds.

Kaden mused "A bored child is a magnet for disaster."

A few chuckles were made by those within earshot. Dera included. "Kaden, all that is left are the houses and the defense shields and weapons. Koth came down a few hours ago to supervise installation of his side of things. The first houses should be complete in a few hours, and the rest be completed in two more days."

"Slower than planned, but with the complications we have come across, better than I expected. Then it is time to start waking up the remaining families as their new homes are completed. We will have to do it in stages, so we don't have too many people waiting on only two shuttles. Communications."

Derik Cambir faced the captain "Yes, sir."

"Contact _Memory_. Have them begin waking up the remaining sleepers. Dera will give you the list of houses available so we don't wake up too many at once."

"Understood, sir." Derik replied, then turned to his comm station and relayed the orders. Dera walked over to him and handed him her data pad with the housing list.

"Now that all our cargo has been offloaded, verify all ground based droids and personnel are off the ship then close her up. We need to get back into orbit so _Future_ can unload her baggage."


	5. 04 Mourning

Chapter four

Colony (Year 0, Day 10)

It was a little over ten days after Kaden's talk with Devark before the ceremony could be held. Delays in construction of housing meant some families were just now making landfall. By pure luck or the hand of fate, no further casualties were added to the one hundred thirty one they had lost. No elaborate fanfare or spectacle was wanted by either Human or Twi'lek. Kaden talked with Devark several times before presenting his plan for a simple ceremony. They had spent many hours together over the last week discussing the religions and traditions of their peoples.

"I know this is very personal for you, and understandably so. I want your approval for anything we do for this ceremony. You mentioned before that your clan cremates their departed, then inters there ashes in a special place."

Devark nodded "Yes. The ashes are usually buried in a place that was special to that person."

"Then I want your permission for a small cairn to be built on the west side of town, in the shadow of the mountains. The ashes of all of the ones we lost can be placed together where they will not be forgotten. The cairn will have the names of those who are no longer with us."

A tear fell from Devark's right eye. "Thank you, Captain. I think this would honor our fallen. The other Twi'lek who died were not of my clan, but since I am highest rank among my people, I have taken it upon myself to see to their remains. I am not sure of the traditions of their clans, so I will take them as family, and treat them as if they were my blood kin."

Kaden bowed his head. "I think it is time for all of us to consider that we are all in this together. That is why I suggested a single ceremony for the dead. In that capacity, I am offering a place in my home. The house they gave me is far too large for us, and I don't like bringing work home, so we have several spare rooms. If you want to think on it for a while, I will understand."

"That is a gracious offer. And yes, I do want to think on it for a while. No slight against you, Captain; however, I am not sure I would be comfortable around children just yet. I may end up being poor company."

"The offer stands. As long as my family endures, you will have a place at our table and in our home." Kaden offered his hand and Devark took it.

* * *

Tonin Suros and his wife Kendra were on board the orbiting shipyard. He was the yard master, in charge of directing the repair or construction of ships. Kendra, the maintenance team lead, had the never ending task of fixing what her husband broke in his work. Tonin had begun repairs on the _Future_ as soon as the ship had returned to orbit after unloading her cargo. While he supervised repairs to the _Future_ , he went through the shipyard's memory banks verifying which ship's schematics were stored there for future use.

Elmar had informed him weeks before the launch from Ord Mantell that he would be able to assemble droid fighters and several other ships. The list of ships shown causes his eyes to widen. These were not just a few ships, nearly twenty different ships were able to be built. As he continued down the list, his eyes kept growing wider. When he reached the last ship on the list, he nearly fell of his chair. Unable to take his eyes off the console screen, he blindly reached to his left for the communications panel. He missed the comm button four times before finally activating the ship to ship link.

"Um. _Hope_? This is _Toy Maker_. You there?"

" _Toy Maker_? Is that you Tonin?" Kaden's voice came through the speaker.

"Yeah. Easier to say than the actual designation. I just found something I think you need to see." Tonin's voice seemed a bit off.

"Can it wait till after the ceremony or is it urgent?"

"It could wait, but I don't think you will want to."

Kaden sighed. "Ok. On my way. But if it isnt worth it, I will have you grounded permanently and put your wife in charge of the yard."

"Understood, sir. I'll take that gamble." Tonin signed off the comm system. He still had not turned his eyes away from the screen.

A few minutes later, a shuttle docked with the shipyard, carrying Kaden and Nera. Upon entering the control room, they saw Tonin standing at the round holotable in the center of the room.

"Make it fast. The ceremony starts in two hours." Kaden's voice showed his impatience.

Tonin entered a couple commands on the holotable. Light poured out from the emitter in the center and expanded into the form of a fighter, not a design Kaden or Nera was familiar with.

Nera's head tilted to the side "I dont recognize that one. Looks vaguely Imperial, but I haven't seen that one before."

Kaden examined it a little closer. "I agree. It is surely Imperial, but I don't recognize it either."

Tonin grinned. "It is called a TIE-D. It is a droid fighter. They were not a main Imperial ship. I ran into the plans years ago when I was a kid. My father built ships for the Rebellion. He had the plans from a raid the rebels did against a warlord who broke away from the Empire after Coruscant was liberated. Faster than a TIE Interceptor, and without a living pilot, able to make turns no living being can make. It could probably outmaneuver anything shot at it. The only difference I see from this one to the ones that warlord used is this has four laser cannons instead of two."

"Interesting. I assume you didn't bring us all the way out here for a droid fighter?" Kaden's impatience was easing, but not much.

"No. I found a lot more." Tonin hit several keys on the console and the holotable changed images every five seconds, cycling through the twenty different ships in it's memory banks. Pointing at the hologram "I found these!"

Kaden and Nera watched as ships appeared and disappeared. Only one or two were not recognized. By the time the last ship appeared, Kaden and Nera were speechless.

"So. Am I vindicated in my urgency? Or should I pack my bags and hand the keys to the _Toy Maker_ to my better half?"

Nera spoke first. "I do think you still have a job here."

"I agree." Kaden chimed in. "The only problem I see is crew. We have under twenty four hundred people total, and about five hundred of them are children. We don't have the manpower for these ships. It takes two hundred to crew the _Hope_ or the _Future_. An _Impstar_ Deuce would take thousands."

"I thought so too. Kaden, your father was a genius. He redesigned these ships from the inside. Captains, I present to you a fleet that needs at most FIVE PEOPLE per ship! The crews from _Hope_ and _Future_ could control eighty ships, plus all the fighters they could carry! Give me a bit of time, and I may be able to remove the crew requirement completely."

Nera and Kaden looked at each other. Kaden stated "Tell no one. After the ceremony, the two of us are coming back. I want Koth and Devark in on this to determine what exactly we need. We did come here to get away from the fighting and chaos, not to cause more. If I hear one whisper of this from anyone, I will tell your wife you couldn't keep a secret. Then I will lock you in a room with her till she is done."

Tonin shivered. "No problem! I wont say a word. In fact, I am going to stay here till you get back. I wont even tell Kendra what I found, although she probably already knows. I swear she is telepathic or something"

* * *

The ceremony was a somber event, especially for the eight crew who had lost their families. Three women and four men, emotional wrecks from grief, proceeded to weep as the ceremony went forward. People who knew them offered what comfort they could; however, it would never be enough to assuage their pain as losing their reasons for making this journey. Every adult here had made the choice to leave home to make a better future for their family. Forty seven of those children were now listed in the names engraved on the stone cairn, names mixed with the adults that left Ord Mantell never to set foot on Promise 4.

Devark was the only one of the eight who wasn't openly crying. The fire light played over his tattooed gray skin making him seem a specter in the faint light of late evening. He had already grieved for his wife and daughter. While he still ached to hold them, the worst of it had passed in his mind. He had thrown himself into his work, focused on not falling apart. He had already made up his mind, after the ceremony, he would take Captain Kaden up on his offer. He couldn't isolate himself forever. The man had been honorable, and treated his clan traditions with respect. This was a man he could call "Brother."

Kaden stood next to the cairn, facing the survivors of the unexpectedly lengthy journey. "This simple marker is here to remind us of how precious life is. For most of us, only a few weeks ago, we were preparing to start on this voyage into the unknown. Our courage and hope that we could make a better tomorrow for ourselves and our descendants. There was always a chance that we would not make it, or have to turn around and return before even leaving our home galaxy. We all could have been lost for eternity in empty blackness, never to wake.

"Now here we stand, on a new planet, far from our old homes. This is our place now. I wish all of us could have been here standing together in celebration. Unfortunately, this was not the case. One hundred thirty one of us never awoke. They did not feel pain or suffer, and their loss will be felt by all of us in some way. There names are here for all of us to see and remember them for having the courage to seek the betterment of ourselves in an unknown land, but they are still unable to stand here with us. Each year on this day, we will gather here to honor those who gave up everything they had to join us in this endeavor.

"Our grief has brought us together this night, and so we must counter that grief with a chance for recovery. We will do everything within our ability to make sure this is only the beginning for our future. We must create a place where our children and grandchildren will not know the chaos and wars we have seen, and the first step is making this place a home for all of us."

As Kaden stepped down from the steps next to the cairn, he walked to Devark and grasped his hand. The handshake became a hug that nearly broke Kaden's ribs. As Devark released his embrace, he softly spoke, "I accept your offer." They waked side by side over to Kaden's wife and two daughters, all three embracing Devark as family.

* * *

The next morning, the _Future_ was released from the shipyard's grasp, now fully repaired and operational. As she left the shipyard, _Hope_ was maneuvering into position for her repairs. Hope had been in marginally better condition than Future; however, both ships had damage that could not be completed outside of a dockyard. Engines, weapons, and minor hull damage on both ships were repaired in quick order. Both ships were back to full operation within forty hours.

As _Hope_ was entering the dock, all twenty four of the tugs were on a different mission. They locked their tractor beams onto _Memory_ , and took her apart carefully. The ship itself was to be used as scrap as part of the original plan. The only part that needed to be saved was the reactor. Since the reactor was completely powered down by this point, there was no risk of catastrophic detonation if something went wrong.

Pieces of the _Memory_ , along with the framework that had linked the ships, were now secured with small tractor beams coming from the _Toy Maker_. As metals and alloys were needed, the tractor beams would feed a piece of scrap into the furnace attached to the yard. That furnace was entrance to the modified construction droid, like so many seen on the surface of Coruscant. The construction droid had been taken apart, then rebuilt as part of the mobile shipyard. That was the marvel of the design, from raw materials to completed ship in one place.

Once the reactor was freed from its former place in the heart of _Memory_ , three of the tugs carried it down to the surface of the planet. They set it gently onto the place that had been prepared for it. The last building had yet to be assembled, as it would sit on top of the reactor. This was the primary power system for the town. Worker droids adjusted the reactor to sit in a stable position then placed support frames around it, locking it in position. Power would be available within a few days.


	6. 05 Surprises

Chapter Five

Colony (Year 0, Day 11)

Only taking breaks for sleep and the ceremony the day before, Koth had been working for almost a week on setting up the defenses ground side. An army of over one hundred droids was doing the heavy lifting; however, he had to supervise the complicated parts. Between shields, weapons, and sensors, it would likely take several weeks to finish most of the work.

The sensors were the easy part. Using one of the shuttles, he had dropped sensor packages equipped with short range communications up on the tops of the mountain range that protected the new settlement. The high vantage point from using the peaks as a base point for sensors gave a much further range to the instruments.

Shields would take a bit longer, a week or two. A dedicated power generator would be buried underground, power cables would then be run to the dome shield generator. Elmar hadn't been able to afford a planetary shield generator, very few could. Instead he had purchased a shield generator of smaller scale, but nearly as effective. It was the same model as the shield used to defend rebels at Hoth from multiple _Imperial_ Star Destroyers. Koth seriously doubted he would ever see _Impstars_ in the sky here, but he took no chances. Once powered up in an emergency, the shield should be able to cover the entire valley almost up to the peaks on three sides of the town, and extend almost thirty kilometers outside the town on the side opening to the grasslands. It would have to do until they could build their own planetary shield generators.

The major weapons would have to wait till the shields were installed. The droid gang he had currently working on the reactor for the shield generator would be hard pressed to split the workforce between two massive projects. Three major weapons, each of which would require all the droids at Koth's disposal, would be plenty to defend against any possible attacking ships in orbit. An enormous V-150 Ion Cannon was the main long range weapon, and could hit ships over a hundred thousand kilometers away. Two smaller V-90 ion cannons, while not quite as powerful, would still be enough to take care of closer ships up to fifteen thousand kilometers up.

Koth was about twenty minutes from completing the reactor install for the shield generator when his com link chirped.

"This is Koth." He was abrupt when interrupted at work.

"Koth, Kaden here. When you have time for a break, I need you to come with me for a few hours. I need your advise on some security issues before the end of the day today."

"Give me thirty minutes and I will meet you at the comm building."

"Understood. See you there."

Koth wasn't sure what security issues there were, since he already knew what the weapons and defense resources were. True to his word though, he would be there on time. Turning back to his task, he directed the droids on installing the cover plate over the permacrete bunker containing the reactor. Fifteen minutes later, he was on his way to the comm building.

Kaden, Nera, and Devark were waiting for him in the control room of the comm building. Kaden and Nera appeared stressed; however, Devark showed no agitation. Kaden and Nera led the other two out the door to a waiting shuttle. Once aboard, Kaden flew it himself so the only people in the shuttle were the four of them.

"I asked you two to join Nera and I because I want your honest security assessment of fleet forces. I want you to tell me where we are weak and were we are not. I want your gut feelings, and a complete list of what you think we would need in the fleet, regardless of manpower. Can I count on you two for this?"

Devark deferred to his supervisor, Koth. Koth hesitated a moment to think about what Captain Kaden was asking him. "I am not an admiral, sir. I have limited experience in fleet battles. My experience mostly involves being stuck on the ground watching one fleet or the other get crushed or driven off, usually my ride home. I will give you my best estimate, but Devark would know more than me about fleet related matters."

Devark was slightly surprised. He wasn't expecting to be the more knowledgeable security member on this assignment. "I spent about six years as a tactical officer on a Mon Calamari cruiser, sir. I listened in quite a bit on planning sessions. Most of the stuff I can understand, but some of the tactics used by the more.." he paused for a moment searching for the right words. "shall we say.. daring, yes that is the word, the more daring officers. Their tactics made no sense to me. I do understand how to balance a fleet for offense and defense, as well as for different missions or opponents."

"That is what I am looking for. I need to know what it will take to keep us safe in the eventuality someone hostile to us comes calling."

"That I can do for you, sir. I just need to know what I will be working with. I know the shipyard can make new ships, but having only one kind of ship gives us a rather large weak spot. I will have to work with Captain Nera on the list. She has more command experience than I do, and it would likely be easier if she worked with me on it."

Captain Nera nodded. "After we find out what we have to work with, we can get started on an order of battle."

"You will find out what we have to work with in a few minutes. Lets suspend the conversation here while I dock us with the _Toy Maker_." Kaden turned to face the front again expertly guided the shuttle to the docking port on the end of the currently idle shipyard.

The four of them were quickly inside the _Toy Maker's_ control room, and were greeted by Tonin. "I was right, sir. Never had to say a word and my wife still knew somehow. Are these the two others you wanted me to show the little surprise to?"

"Yes, Tonin. Give them the slideshow." Kaden grinned and stood off to the side to see the reactions on the faces of the newcomers.

"Here we go!" Tonin declared as he started up the holotable with the projections of the ships cycling as before. One by one, the ships appeared, from smallest to largest. From droid piloted fighters, then a _Lancer_ frigate, the familiar _Ingot_ , several freighters, a _Strike_ cruiser, an _Interdictor_ cruiser, then a _Victory II_ , an _Imperial II_ class, and finally, the _Super_ class star destroyer.

The smile on Kaden's and Nera's faces were mostly due to the looks of shock on the faces of the two security experts. Koth and Devark both stood staring at the last ship shown, it hadn't repeated the cycle or faded away. Devark took several steps forward till he was almost touching the edge of the holotable.

The first words were from Devark. "It would take centuries before our population would be able to crew the _Strike_ cruiser or larger, even just one of them. Probably over a thousand years till we could fill a _Super_ like the _Executor_ or _Lusankya_. I have seen the damage those beasts can cause, both breath-taking and terrifying."

"Wow." was all the reply Koth could express.

"Without worrying about crew, I want you two to come up with an order of battle, ships and fighters only, for what you would want to defend this system against invaders."

"May take me a couple days, sir. Mind if I stay here a while? We will need to put some data together before we head back down. We will probably be working on this for a while but should be able to get a list together for you by the end of the week."

"Not a problem. We are all staying here for a bit. I want to check a few things on the yard before we head down anyway. You will notice the capital ships are all Imperial designs. My father had told me that they were easier to acquire by far compared to the newer New Republic ships. Koth, would you like to join me on an impromptu inspection of the shipyard? These three will need some time to go through the information."

Koth nodded and they began to walk out of the control room. Upon reaching the doorway, Kaden turned back "For the moment, I am ordering the creation of one of the freighters. It was mostly used as an asteroid mining vessel. Tonin, since the two ships we have now are combat ready, get the mining ship started, as well as one of the gas harvesters ready.

"You got it, sir." Tonin was rather cheerful as he moved to his master console and began punching in commands to begin the manufacture of parts and assembly of a new ship.

"Oh, once those two ships are complete, I want you to set the yard on expansion mode. Currently we are limited to ships under one hundred fifty meters across in two dimensions, and only one ship at a time. I want those limits raised so we can get our defensive fleet build as quickly as possible." Kaden called out before he left the room.

"Oh boy. More stuff to build. My wife is gonna kill me." Tonin groaned.

On the trip back to the planet, Devark was very pensive. He had worked with fleet tacticians before, but never had he been in charge of assembling a complete fleet on his own. As far as he knew, he was likely the only one on the planet who regularly took part in fleet operations and tactics discussions, other than Captain Nera. This job would push his experience farther than he was willing to admit to himself. He just hoped they wouldn't create a disastrous problem.

Koth was the first to speak since they left the _Toy Maker_. "Sir, could you drop me off over by the shield generator complex? I have a lot of work to do before I finish for the day."

"Not a problem. I will drop both of you off there. It isn't very far from my house, so it will be a short walk for Devark."

"Thank you, sir."

"Nera and I are going to be using the shuttle for a while longer. We wanted to take a look at the back side of this mountain range and see if anything over there would be useful. Now that the majority of the buildings are complete, I am sending you an additional three hundred droids. It should help speed things along on installing the shields and weapons."

"I could use the help. The additional heavy lifting should allow me to get the shields running within two or three days. I will need to do some testing before running it up to full power though. And we wont need to keep it running all the time." Koth was grateful for the extra droids.

Two hours later, after making several survey runs with the shuttle, Nera perked up at a blip on her console. "The sensors are picking up something up ahead. About ninety kilometers south of the town. Not sure what it is."

Kaden turned the ship to the south east and slowed the shuttle as they approached the mountain range again. "What are you seeing there?"

"I am still not sure. Whatever it is, it is just inside a cave in the base of that cliff." She said pointing out the front viewport.

Kaden slowed to a crawl, relying on repulsorlifts to keep the shuttle aloft. It did not take him long to locate the entrance to the cave. As Kaden landed the shuttle, he glanced up at the entrance. "Cave may not be the right word for what we are looking at. It is too perfect to be a natural formation. Looks like an artificial tunnel of some kind."

"Yeah it does. Lets take a look at it before we head back. If we need to, we can send Koth and his forces over here if it is too dangerous for just the two of us."

"Should not be a problem. I have two of Koth's forces here in the shuttle with us in the cargo bay. My father shipped us out with over two hundred Droidikas. We can send them in while we wait here."

Nera gasped. "Droidikas? He actually found some? I didn't think any were left after the Clone Wars and the Rebellion."

"I don't know where he found them either. I only noticed them on the inventory list when we unloaded _Hope_ at the edge of town. Between those and the ship blueprints on the _Toy Maker_ , I am kinda wondering what else my father left to surprise us."

Kaden keyed in several commands, opening the cargo bay door to see two droids roll out and zoom across the grassland to the tunnel at the base of the cliff. After a few minutes, both droids walked out on their short legs, then rolled up again and sped toward the cargo bay ramp. A few moments later, a message came across the screen in front of Kaden.

"Looks like no danger. Lets take a look and see what is inside."

"I hope you don't mind, Kaden, but I am still taking my blaster." Nera grinned.

"I have mine as well."

The pair walked out the main ramp, then jogged over to the entrance. It was definitely not a natural formation. Perfect lines and flawlessly smooth polished surfaces of dark gray stone comprised the walls in a perfect archway. If it wasn't for the dirt floor, Nera would swear the tunnel had just been finished that morning. After a hundred meters, the tunnel took a sharp right turn. Lack of light forced them both to use glow rods, which cast a more haunted look on the chamber the tunnel finally opened into.

The chamber was not very large by Imperial standards, maybe fifty meters square and thirty high. What was impressive were the only two objects in the room. A meter high pedestal sat offset three meters to one side of the chamber center. Sitting ten meters back from the center was a shallow ramp... with a large upright ring.


	7. 06 Discovery

Chapter Six

Colony (Year 0, Day 12)

Kaden landed for the second time outside the tunnel south of town. As he disembarked with the eight others he had brought, he thought about what they should name their town. No one had suggested anything yet, which was odd. Maybe they were all just tired of names. He may have to do it himself, if no one else did. The problem was he wasn't really fond of bringing names from their old galaxy to their new home. But what did that leave except for random words and meaningless gibberish.

Once he reached the entrance to the tunnel, he directed the two additional security droids to follow him inside. One of the following techs had a small portable power generator to power the portable lights and recharge the droids. He led the group to the chamber using his glow rod, then assisted the men with him in setting up the generator and portable lights.

"OK. Here is what I want done here. Do what you can to figure out what these objects are and what they are used for. I want to know if they are dangerous to us. Until we know, there will be four security droids in this chamber at all times. Com links do not work in here for some reason. So if there is a problem, go outside then call us. We set up a relay to get communications this far south. Until we can set up some communication satellites, we work with what we have. Any questions?" Kaden looked around briefly.

"How long are we going to be here?" came a voice from multiple people.

"Twelve hour shifts for the moment. The next shuttle will be here then. If any of you want to stay and keep scanning these things, go for it. Depending on what they are, we may setup a more long term camp here. If you come up with anything, let myself or Nera know via com link."

Kaden waited for any further questions, but none came. Once he was satisfied the eight techs would be ok here, he returned to the shuttle and lifted off to head home. His thoughts returned once more to names. Naming something should be easy; however, it seems the harder he thought of a name, the harder it became. Maybe he should ask his daughters, as they seemed to name everything. Then again maybe not, as many of the names went from silly to nonsense to ridiculous. Maybe if he just ignored it, a name would pop into his head.

Devark's head hurt. Staring at stats for various ships for hours, shield ratings, weapons ratings, armor thicknesses, all increasing the stabbing pain behind his eyes and sending random twitches down his lekku. Even with near constant communications between himself and Captain Nera, creating a fleet from scratch was no easy task.

He needed some fresh air, and maybe some food. He couldn't remember the last time had eaten anything of note. Stepping out of his room in the house of Kaden's family, he migrated toward the kitchen, following a delicious smell. Entering the kitchen brought with it enticing scents he hadn't noticed before, as well as the sound of two giggling children.

Upon spotting the tall Twi'lek, Mira and Tabica sprinted to him and each wrapped themselves around one of his legs while still giggling and laughing. Devark steadied himself by grabbing the door frame, looking down at the two pink skinned children. Slowly he tried to walk over to the table to sit down at one of the chairs. Due to the added weight of nearly a hundred twenty pounds of giggles, it ended up more of a steady shuffle of his feet. They only returned his legs when he was about to sit down. Before he could say anything to either of them, they were already gone, out the door to the open area behind the house.

"Those two seem to have unlimited energy. I wish my husband could figure out what gives it to them and use it to generate power. We would never run out." Lin commented as she watched the entire affair.

"My daughter was the same way. Never able to stay in one place longer than a few seconds."

"Are you hungry? I don't think you have eaten in at least a day. We have some soup and bread left over from lunch earlier. I wasn't expecting you and Kaden to both be gone, so we have plenty."

"I would be forever grateful. I actually don't remember the last time I ate anything. And if Kaden doesn't want his share of lunch, I will be more than happy to take care of it for him."

Lin laughed. "Kaden usually misses one meal each day. He has always been like that." She brought him a large bowl of soup and several bread rolls. Devark ate slowly, not wanting to upset his stomach. Still he managed to finish his meal and have seconds while Lin worked on cooking dinner for the family.

Nera, back aboard _Future_ , was going through the scanning reports. The first set of scans in the system had shown nothing of note. Until she and Kaden had discovered the two unknown objects south of town, she hadn't thought to scan the planets themselves. She now had the results of those scans. Brow furrowed, she paused on page thirty seven of the report on Promise 4, the next planet out-system.

There was an object there, a rather large one shaped like the point on the front of an arrow. At two and a half kilometers long, and over a kilometer wide, it was a massive structure just under the surface of the planet. Whatever this thing was made of, the scanners could not determine. The scanners also reported the object was emitting a low power signature of some kind, also unidentified. This was something she would need to call Kaden about. They had intentionally avoided systems that had sentient life or ruins of the same.

"Comm, get Kaden on the horn for me, if you please."

"Yes, ma'am."

A few moments later, a reply was heard. "This is Kaden. How are you doing Nera?"

"Not bad, I have something you should take a look at. How soon can you come up? Or should I come down to you?"

Kaden chuckled. "Come on down. We will be having dinner shortly. You are welcome to join us. Knowing Lin, she probably has cooked enough for a small army."

"I will meet you at your house then." She terminated the connection. "XO, you have the bridge till I get back." As she stood, she slid her data pad into a pocket on the leg of her pants.

It didn't take her long to ride the shuttle down to the surface. Keeping one shuttle in space and one on the surface made it easier to get back and forth. They would need to build more shuttles soon though if they were going to have more ships. It would also help with exploring the planet they had settled on.

Once at Kaden's home, she joined Devark and Kaden's family for dinner. She had arrived just as they were sitting down at the table. Devark was quiet as usual, and Kaden's two girls were the opposite. Quite a contrast, yet understandable. Kaden was reading his own data pad for a few moments before Lin elbowed him then pointed to the offensive device at the dinner table. Sheepishly he put the pad away.

After dinner, once the girls were settled into their bedroom, Nera and Kaden went into a small lounge off the dining room. Nera pulled out her pad and handed it over to Kaden, wanting to see if he saw what she had seen. It took him a few minutes, about the same time it had taken her to find it. Pulling out his own pad, he looked through several files on it, then held them side by side.

"These aren't the same readings as the items we found in that chamber." Kaden handed her the pads so she could see the power reading differences.

"No. Is it possible they were left here by two different sentient races? I have seen no ruins or current development on any planet of this system. I wouldn't have seen that structure on Promise 4 if I hadn't done a subsurface scan."

"Possible, Nera. No proof one way or the other really. The scan says the highest part of thus structure is forty meters underground? It seems to have been there for a long time."

"That is one theory. If you look here at the surface image, the structure is in the bottom of a valley. The mountains on either side show evidence of a rock slide, it may be that is what covered it. If that is the case, it could have been built much more recently."

Kaden sat back in his chair. "We need to go look into it. I would feel safer if one ship stayed here close enough to defend the town. The shields and weapons aren't up and running yet. And until we know what we are dealing with, I would like to be cautious."

"So me or you?"

"You found it, so your choice. I would recommend that if you go, take one of the shuttles with you and some security. Say four Droidikas and twenty troops?"

"Overkill maybe, but like you I am cautious. I will rally the troops and return to _Future_. Besides, my ship has more hypermatter left. If something happens, it would be better that I can jump there and back instead running your ship out of fuel before we have to."

"You have a point. Alright. Leave when you are ready. Be careful, and come back safe." Kaden stood up, offering a hand to Nera.

Nera accepted his hand and stood. "I should be en route in about two hours. I will contact you through _Hope_ if something happens." Turning toward the door, she made her way to the comm building to place calls to the security personnel she would be taking.


	8. 07 Contact

Chapter Seven

Colony (Year 0, Day 14)

Dera Kirek was worn out. Almost two weeks of rare sleep had taken it's toll. With the exception of Koth's equipment for planetary defense, all of the buildings for the town were done. Newly erected warehouses now contained the last of the supplies taken from the two cargo barges. At the moment, she had nearly five thousand non-military droids under her command. The co-ordination of so many tasks had been stressful. Now the less complicated and non-urgent tasks could begin.

Farming droids, numbering over a thousand, filed out of town just before dawn. Sensor maps of the area east of town had been marked and tasks had been programmed into the command droids. Twenty square kilometers of open grassland was to be re-purposed for crops, and these droids were the perfect tools to use. As the droids fanned out to their designated areas, fences began to appear in their wake.

Several smaller construction droids had been tasked with creating permacrete roads through town, to keep the mud from becoming a problem when rain came. Others of their type built new roads stretching out and bordering on the soon to be created farm fields. The last few construction droids had been sent to Koth, to help him with the setting up of defensive emplacements.

Dera sluggishly entered her apartment, only to lean back against the wall of the entry hall to her quarters once the door was closed. She needed a break, a few hours sleep and maybe some food. With effort, she straightened and turned to her living area and froze.

"Honey, where did all these things come from? I don't remember us having any art or paintings in our belongings."

A male voice from a different room called out to her, "They were here when we moved in. You have been working so much lately, I am not surprised they escaped your attention."

Dera headed for the source of the voice, the bedroom. "I haven't had time. Too much work to do, and I think now I am caught up enough to slow down a bit."

"Slow down? I have already taken care of that. I talked to your boss yesterday. He told me that the next time you were home, to take your data pad away, and not let you have it back for two days."

Dera smiled, and tosses the pad to her husband. "Take it. I know when I am outmaneuvered. Now to get a shower. I think the dust in my clothes has gathered it's own dust."

"When you are dust-free, come into the kitchen, I made breakfast for us both."

* * *

Children playing is a noise most people find joy in hearing, until your child goes silent. Every parent knows that when a loud boisterous child goes silent, it means trouble. When Feth Te'vos noticed his three children were too quiet, he was required by instinct to investigate. It would not be well for his little ones to get into something and break it, which had happened more than once before. The last time it had taken him nearly four hours to re-assemble the custom build swoop he had since he was a child on Corellia.

Enjoying his first day off after two weeks of long hours, Feth set his pad down. He had been reading a scientific paper that interested him, the last he would likely ever receive from the university on Coruscant. After tracking the path of abandoned toys and personal items, he located his brood. All three were concentrating, oblivious to the world, on their partially complete drawings on the outside wall of his house. "My little trouble makers have found something to draw with I see"

"It's a rock!" the littlest one held up the fist sized silvery gray stone.

"May I see it for a moment, my dear?"

"Sure pops! I have more." she placed the lump in his hand then grabbed another piece from the ground next to her. They seemed to be everywhere around. Silvery gray rock that had the consistency of compressed powder.

Feth examined the rock in his hand, which broke into several pieces when he held it too tight. Turning back to the door to his house, he called back "Draw what you will, just only on this side of the house. No drawing on the other walls or the inside. And don't wander too far, lunch will be ready as soon as your mother finishes cooking." He got no response.

Pulling out his com link, he called his supervisor on the science team "Question for you boss."

"What's up Feth?"

"You know all those small gray rocks scattered all over the place? Have you had a chance to see what it is yet?"

"Not yet. Why do you ask?"

"I think the powder is a metal of some kind, but I dont recognize it. I only noticed because my kids were using it to draw on one of the house walls."

"It isn't harmful, we did check the area for toxins and radiation. Give me a few hours to run a few tests to see what I can find out. I should know something by this evening."

"I appreciate it." Feth closed out the call as he walked back to his chair to continue his reading.

* * *

As light from the system's star illuminated a deep valley on Promise 4, a shuttle entered the atmosphere heading for the co-ordinates of the underground structure. Twenty armed and armored soldiers sat in chairs along the walls, shaking slightly from the turbulence of atmosphere entry. Each wore stormtrooper armor repainted from the normal white to a combination of green, brown, and black that would have been perfect for any number of worlds. Armed with E-11's and thermal detonators, they were as ready for hostile conditions as they could be.

Four combat droids taking up the center aisle, with four more in the cargo bay, awaiting orders. The combat droids' shields and impressive firepower gave them an advantage against any living opponents. Droidikas were fast when not actively engaged in combat, speeding into position by rolling like a big wheel. The down side to that mode of movement, the shields were unable to be active. Once in position they would uncurl, shields would activate, and the droids' pair of twin blasters could then be put to use.

The first to exit the shuttle when the ramp was lowered were the four droids in the main cabin. Zipping out of the shuttle, the assumed their guard positions around the landing site. Then came the twenty soldiers, all professionally trained in their previous lives. The soldiers knew their jobs well, so chatter was non-existent. They were soon joined by the remaining four droids from the cargo bay.

"This is Saber One, landing area clear."

"Acknowledged Saber One, _Future_ One says to proceed"

"Roger, proceeding to target."

As one, twenty camouflaged forms moved in two columns, advancing on the structure. They were flanked by six of the combat droids. Two droids remained behind to secure the shuttle and landing area in case of an emergency. Due to the terrain, it would take nearly an hour to reach the area of the underground structure, and possibly much longer to locate an entrance that was accessible.

"Sir, found what looks like a tunnel through the rock fall. It may go down to the structure. It is large enough for the droids to make it in too."

"Stay there, we are headed to you."

Once the troops reached the entrance, two droids were assigned to remain there as sentinels, while the twenty four remaining members of the team entered the tunnel. The tunnel itself was a bit unusual. It appeared to have been bored out by an energy beam or something similar. Melted rock made for smooth surfaces along the walls and ceiling. The floor was a bit rougher, which made it easy to travel it's length with minimal issues regarding traction.

"Got an open doorway here. The walls look strange, not like any building I have ever seen. I don't see anything I recognize. "

"Saber One to _Future_ One, whatever this is, I seriously doubt it is natural. Something built this place."

"Understood, Saber One. Proceed with caution. I would remind you that we are new to this galaxy, so please don't destroy or kill anything unless you have no choice."

"Wilco. Will advise if we find anything else"

After passing several hallways, it was easy to see this place was far too large to clear with just one group.

"Sabers Six through Ten, take a droid and head down that hallway. Rapier One through Five, same with that one over there. Rapier Six through Ten, This one over here. Rest of you with me."

Splitting up into four fire teams greatly increased the pace of exploration. It also spread out the firepower they had available, which was both good and bad. They did find several items of note however. What appeared to be strange writing on pedestals and in various places on walls. It didnt take long after they split up before the first corpse was found.

"Saber Six to Saber One. Found a body."

"Send me a vid link, Six" The team leader called a halt to his group. The other four members plus the droid took up defensive positions in the chamber they were currently in, covering all the doorways.

On the arm mounted holoprojector, a small image appeared. Skeletal remains in clothed in rags lay propped up in a corner. A voice accompanied the holo transmission. "It looks like whoever it was has been dead a long time. If I didn't know any better, I would swear it was human."

"Saber One, Saber Six, this is _Future_ One. What do you mean 'human'?"

"This is Saber Six. Look at the skull. Thirty two teeth, same as me. Shape is right, and here is the hyoid bone. Also the skeleton has floating ribs. Very few sentient species I have seen have them."

"How the hell did a human get to this galaxy if they didn't come with us?"

"Not sure _Future_ One. I assume we aren't missing anyone"

"All accounted for as of last night."

"Saber One to fire teams. Continue clearing the structure. Keep an eye out for more corpses."

The four teams spent almost thirty more minutes exploring the seemingly empty compound. Nearly a hundred corpses had been found in their searching, and they still had only been through about a fourth of the interior. Slow movement which checking for traps delayed the process somewhat.

"This is Rapier Six! We are taking fire and Seven and Ten are down. Requesting support. Locator beacon is active!" Sounds of weapons fire could be heard in the background.


	9. 08 Combat

Chapter Eight

Planet near Colony (Year 0, Day 14)

Time does strange things in combat. It accelerates causing circumstances to change rapidly, while at the same time it seems everything is moving in slow motion. These two opposing effects have been experienced by few outside the veteran soldier. They are unable to forget the feeling of being powerless yet invincible. The remembered events often replay in the dreams and memories later in life, sometimes causing drastic psychological issues. When thrust back into combat, experienced soldiers are able to focus much easier, and to greater effect as compared to fresh recruits. It was due to this that Saber and Rapier teams had been made up entirely of combat veterans. The unusual behavior of a universal constant was understood, and anticipated. That focus and understanding is all that stands between an effective soldier and death.

Rapier Six and Eight were providing covering fire for Nine to drag the two down soldiers back toward the entrance to the complex. Their droid, had been left behind once it ceased to function. Seeing it struck by nearly thirty energy blasts within ten seconds hadn't been something they were expecting. It's shields had stopped maybe a third of the incoming fire, before failing completely leaving the large droid to receive around twenty blueish bursts of energy. No explosion or flying shrapnel accompanied it's death, only the sound of it collapsing to the ground. A well timed thermal detonator was all that allowed them the breathing room necessary to pull back with their two down teammates.

Rapier One's team reinforced them within a few minutes, having sprinted down the mapped corridors to where Six's team was retreating. The increased firepower of five additional soldiers plus an undamaged droid shattered the advance of the oncoming hostile forces. Another pair of detonators thrown into the corridor they had retreated from eliminated the remaining incoming fire.

"This is Nine, these two are alive. Not sure what they got hit with, but they are out cold. I saw Seven take four hits before he went down, not sure about Ten."

"Understood, Nine. Four and Five, carry them out. The rest of us will cover till we are outside."

Orders in combat are to be followed quickly, and no hesitation was seen as two men picked up the fallen soldiers and led the way back to the tunnel. Saber team joined them a hundred meters before they reached the tunnel, and took over covering the retreat.

"Saber One, this is Shuttle One. We are aware of the situation, and are in position for a fast extract just outside the tunnel. Our droid escorts are covering the tunnel mouth."

"Understood, and thanks." Saber One exhaled with relief. It would be much easier than falling back over difficult terrain while under fire, and the shuttle's shields and weapons would help with keeping any hostile forces from hitting them from behind.

It did not take long for the two teams to exit the tunnel, carrying their two unconscious comrades. They made it inside the shuttle while seven droids covered the entrance. Within moments of the shuttle backing off from the tunnel, humanoids began pouring out, firing at the droids and the shuttle. Blue energy blasts struck shields, penetrating occasionally on the droids. The return fire of red blaster bolts tore into the hostile troops, dropping them rapidly. It was not enough.

The shuttle was back far enough that it's pilot had a clear field of fire to the tunnel mouth, and fire poured forth. Scarlet bolts, far larger than the ones emanating from the droids, smashed into the alien troops, and the ground around them. Armor and flesh vaporized in nanoseconds before the bolts continued past. Stone exploded sending shrapnel out in all directions. The bolts covered the entrance of the tunnel, melting stone, and causing fires in the vegetation around the tunnel. A dozen shots struck the rock over the top of the tunnel, causing the collapse of the tunnel itself for half it's length.

Descending to a few feet over the ground, the shuttle opened the cargo bay door. The remaining three combat droids entered quickly causing loud thumps when they landed inside. As the door closed, the shuttle accelerated into the sky, headed for space and the _Future_ sitting in orbit.

"Shuttle One to _Future_ , we are incoming, with two wounded. Lost five of the droids. Hostiles have been held back for the moment. Not sure if they have any big guns."

"Understood. Take the dorsal airlock. Medics will meet you there."

Nera opened a com channel to Kaden. "Kaden, we have a problem."

"What happened?"

"Hostiles. Two wounded, no dead. Lost five droids though."

"Find out every detail. I think the helmets have holovid recorders on them. Go over them and see who started it, or if we were ambushed. Also, I want you to stay there for the moment. Keep an eye out for any activity planet-side."

"Understood sir. _Future_ out."

* * *

Kaden was at home when Nera's call came though. Setting his pad on the table next to his chair, he stood. A few moments later, he was knocking on the door to Devark's room.

"Come in"

Kaden entered the room to see Devark sitting at a desk with over a dozen pads scattered on it. "How soon can you have that fleet estimate ready? We may end up needing it sooner than I wanted."

"It is about done. Want to see the list?" Devark picked up one of the pads and offered it to Kaden.

Kaden scrolled through the list. "Hmm. Didn't want to use the Super, I see."

"Yeah, from what I remember of the discussions, they were more trouble than they were worth. Powerful sure, but too easy to take out and maintenance was a nightmare."

"Ok. So five _Impstar_ Deuces, Same of the _Victory_ Deuces. Two _Interdictors_ and twenty _Ingots_. Thirty _Lancers_ , and... Five Thousand fighters?!"

"Yes sir. Some stationed here in orbit, and the rest with the fleet. There is a mix on the fighters. Four thousand are the TIE-D, and the rest are modified TIE Bombers. These are built for taking out capital ships."

"Ok. I am transmitting the list to _Toy Maker_." Kaden turned to leave.

"Glad I was able to get it done. There may be some final changes in the count of the smaller ships and fighters, but it should not be too drastic."

"Thanks Devark."

* * *

 _Future_ sat in orbit observing no movement for several hours after the shuttle docked. Nera had already gone over the helmet vidcams with each of the four team leads. No mistakes made, it had been an ambush. Something the cams caught, that was missed by the troops, was a few images of a light green skinned humanoid. Long white hair fell from it's head, and while humanoid in appearance, it was definitely not a race they had encountered before.

"I think that was the leader of the troops that hit us." Saber Six commented.

"Agreed. It stayed behind the others and was never at risk." Saber One chuckled at the thought. "No offense, ma'am" he corrected himself to Nera.

"None taken. I have never been in ground combat before. Rather not be a burden on those would have to cover me."

An announcement came over the conference room speaker. "Captain to the bridge. We have movement on the surface."

Nera and the others hurried out the door connecting the conference room to her destination. "What do you see?"

"Increased power levels from the structure, and it looks like the rock slide is moving!"

"Shields up, arm weapons!" Nera shouted commands as she sat into her chair.

Tense minutes passed by before the rock covering the structure began to shift drastically. Sensors showed a ship of some kind lifting off from the rubble, rising slowly. Within seconds of lifting off, the rock that had been covering it had dispersed enough to see the ship itself. As it rose, its bow raised to the sky to point toward the _Future_. Massive blue blasts shot out of the leading edges of the arrowhead shaped ship.

"Evasive now! Open fire as soon as you get a lock." Nera may not be experienced in ground combat, but she had seen her share of space combat. The first two incoming shots struck the shields hard enough to make those standing fall to the floor."Tactical, tell me what it is they are shooting at us."

"Not sure, ma'am. Not like weapons we are used to. Seems to be plasma of some sort, but nothing like what we use. Shields still at ninety percent."

"Are our weapons hurting them?"

"To an extent. The ship is much larger than we are. No shields, but seems to be fairly good armor, like _Impstar_ good."

"Bring us about. I want us setting up for a broadside against their flank. Once we get behind them we can smash whatever engines this thing has."

"Looks like fighter sized ships are being launched. Almost a hundred!"

"Damn. All guns switch targets to the fighters." Nera opened a com link to the _Hope_ " _Future_ to _Hope_ , gonna need some help here. We have one capital ship and around a hundred fighters engaging us. Get your asses over here!"

"This is _Hope_ , Captain Kaden isnt here. Relaying message then jumping to your position. ETA three minutes."

"Make it a fast three minutes!" Nera cut the com. Her ship was able to evade incoming fire from the capital ship easily. The blue blasts were slow moving compared to the turbolasers she was used to. Occasional hits impacted the shields, however they were holding.

As the ship sped across the empty space separating the two larger combatants, the _Future_ 's guns had taken a toll on the fighters, nearly half were now gone. Unfortunately, it seemed they were now firing on the rear of the _Future_ , in an area her weapons could not hit. The combined firepower of forty plus fighters would eventually take down the rear shields and begin tearing away her engines.

Re-targeted weapons from _Future_ began smashing into the outer hull of the huge vessel once more. This time they were targeting the leading edges of the ship, where the weapons fire was originating. The angle of approach gave firing position to nearly two thirds of the _Future_ 's firepower. Fifty six turbolaser cannons on quad mounts and ten dual turbolasers, had a devastating effect on the massive ship. Bolts of scarlet energy ripped through the outer armor of the larger vessel, causing several secondary explosions.

 _Hope_ exited hyperspace just in time to witness the impressive fusillade being sent out by the _Future_ 's guns. Immediately, her shields raised as she charged into battle, targeting the fighters harassing the stern of her sister ship. Twenty seconds of salvo fire reduced the count of smaller ships to three. Now lacking targets, _Hope_ followed in her sister's footsteps by sending ungodly amounts of weapons fire into the already damaged sections of the multi-colored alien vessel,he droid brains operating the weapons had nearly flawless targeting.

From the bridge of the _Future_ , a cheer rang out when _Hope_ joined the fray. _Future_ was already maneuvering toward the rear of the damaged hostile ship. Fire continued to pour out of her weapons into the now visible engines of the vessel, which was now turning to escape the confrontation. It was a futile effort. The combined firepower of the two _Ingots_ smashed into it in a constant barrage, boring through the ship. The engines failed spectacularly, exploding with enough force to rip the rear half of the ship apart. The front half of the ship, now lacking propulsion, began to curve back toward the planet. Gravity would finish it off. The three remaining fighters broke off for a moment, then began rapid acceleration. Wide arc turns terminating at the rear of _Hope_. Her aft shield strength went down by twenty percent on impact.


	10. 09 Preparations

A/N: This chapter is where the major changes will start from my original version of the story. Time jump from 6 years before SGA to 5 years before SGA. Will be adding in a few more chapters that will take place before the Atlantis expedition arrives.

Zeus501: Scientists have stated many different numbers over the years for what would be needed for a viable population for a colony to ensure long term survival. I am using the 50/500 rule. It has it's flaws, but it is rather simple. The concept is that you need 50 genetically diverse adults of a species to avoid inbreeding and sterility in the short term, and 500 genetically diverse adults in the long term to avoid genetic drift. The increased number on the long term survival would prevent the population from becoming its own sub species and being unable to procreate with others of its original species. The two races I included from the SW galaxy both meet the 500 side of the equation. Twi'lek adults numbered over 500 and were non-relatives. On the human part of this group we had approx double the 500 necessary.

Yes there have been challenges to the 50/500 rule, but no conclusive evidence has been presented that can disprove the use of this rule in general application. Some species are exceptions to this rule, such as rapidly reproducing rodent species in that they need fewer adults or in plant based species that require far more than 500 to make a suitable stable population. There are cases where higher or lower breeding populations are needed for genetic stability and survival, but most of those are either short lived species or extremely sedentary ones. As such, humans and most mammalian species can have stable breeding populations with approx five hundred adults and fall under the 50/500 rule, or are close enough to not require much of a difference in population above or below the numbers listed.

* * *

Chapter Nine

Colony (Year 0, Day 14)

Tonin had his work cut out for him. He had received the list from Kaden on the ships needed for the fleet. The amount of ships needing to be built was staggering. The complete list would take a couple years to finish. The hard part would be to get the materials. Durasteel was not readily available for this many ships. With the resource requirements for the desired fleet, he needed to locate everything before he could begin. He had a few hours before the gas harvester ship was complete. Then there was the _Future_ , who's engines were damaged and would need repairs.

" _Toy Maker_ to Dera Kirek. Would you be able to come up for a while?" Tonin sat waiting a few moments on a response.

"This is her husband, she will not be available until tomorrow. Please call back then." And the com link went dead.

"Oh well." He murmured to no one. "Time to get what I can gathered for now." He sent commands to a dozen of the tugs, sending them down to the planet surface to retrieve the two now empty cargo barges. They were made of durasteel. It wouldn't be enough for much, but he could use it. He had enough resources to make fifty fighters and one of the _Lancers_ , if his calculations were accurate. That would have to do for now until they could find substitute materials.

The asteroid mining ship had departed that morning. Easy to make since it was mostly empty space with a very thin metal hull. It would reach the inner asteroid belt the next day, and begin rendering the asteroids in its area to small chunks. Those chunks would then be tractored into one of the cargo bays to deliver to _Toy Maker_. Maybe he could call one of the science team down on the planet to see if they had been able to determine what minerals were available.

" _Toy Maker_ to Science team. You there?"

"We are a bit busy, what do you need?"

"I was wondering if you had located any of the minerals needed for ship construction. We are running out of scrap durasteel, and I have a long list of things to build. I will need to know what is available where so I can send my asteroid miner out to collect it."

The reply from the science team was slow in coming. "Most of the elements we have found are the same as in our old galaxy. Scans show you should be able to get almost everything from the two asteroid belts. There is also some elements we have never seen before. One is a powdery metal. We have been experimenting with it and it may end up being useful. We added some to a durasteel alloy, and now we can t even break the stuff, at least not with what we have here. I'll send you the formula shortly."

"Nice, thanks! Any word on Tiabana gas or hypermatter?"

"Not positive on the gas, but it looks like Promise 5 has some near the surface. As for fuel, Dera sent the hypermatter refinery to one of the moons. Safer there and it has the necessary materials to start making fuel. Couple days at most before it will be able to start refueling our two ships."

"Good. Thanks for the update, and I just got the formula you sent. I will see if I can incorporate it into the designs. _Toy Maker_ out."

Now that he had a likely source for minerals, he queued up twenty fighters to be built once the repairs to _Future_ were complete. They first batch of fighters would be done in less than a day. Next was a _Lancer_ , then thirty more fighters. This left him with a question. Where would he put the fighters. They would need to land somewhere for maintenance. No facilities had been built on the ground, and he couldn't keep them here on the shipyard. He ran through the list of blueprints available in the shipyard's memory banks again. Nothing there either unless he built one of the much larger ships. His yard wasn't big enough yet.

Walking over to the holotable, he opened a new project. The code name he decided to give it was "Sentinel."

* * *

 _Future_ and _Hope_ came out of hyperspace together. _Future_ changed heading to approach the _Toy Maker_. _Hope_ resumed her defensive position over the town below. One of _Future_ 's engines was out completely. Two others were providing little thrust. The enemy fighters had chewed through the aft shield, and started eating away at the engines until the _Hope_ had nearly exterminated them in a few salvos. _Future_ only had to wait an hour before the freshly built gas harvester was released from the _Toy Maker_ , making room for _Future_ to pull up. Once in place, repairs began almost instantly. Damaged parts were cut away, and inventoried to be replaced. Missing parts were noted, and new parts created.

As the repairs began, a shuttle launched from _Future_ , headed to the surface. Nera and several of the soldiers were on board. The cargo bay held the real prize, several pieces of wreckage salvaged from the hostile vessel, and two of the bodies they found floating in space. The science team would need to examine all of it to figure out what they were and what the ship had been made of. Events like this were bound to happen; however, not this soon. If more ships came looking for the one that was destroyed, this could get very bad very fast. They were not ready.

As they landed, the science team was waiting. Several droids were with them to carry the salvaged ship pieces to the lab, while two stretchers were on hand to carry the bodies. Nera wasn't taking any chances.

"Saber One, take two with you and keep an eye on the bodies. For all we know, they could be able to survive exposure to open space."

"Yes, ma'am" and he followed the bodies with two of his men.

As they left for the lab, Kaden approached. "Glad you made it back. How bad is it?"

"Engine damage for the most part. _Hope_ was far enough away when the ship exploded, but we weren't. Their fighters had torn up one engine earlier, but the explosion took our facing shields down by almost seventy percent. I would definitely recommend keeping at least five kilometers between us and them if we have to fight them again."

"I think we are going to stay close to home for now. If the beings from that ship had friends, they may come looking for them, and I would rather not leave this settlement unprotected."

Nera agreed. "Good point. _Future_ should be repaired soon, but we need something to counter the fighters."

"Already in the works. _Toy Maker_ has a list of ships to build, starting with droid ships and fighters. They will be smaller ships for now, then we will worry about expanding the shipyard."

"As long as the planetary defenses are finished soon, we should be able to handle any large ships that come this way. Any idea on how long that will be?"

Kaden thought for a moment. "Several weeks I believe, at least for the three ion cannons and shields. Ground defenses should be up sooner. We have several dozen turrets to set up, as well as droids patrolling the area. Give it a few weeks and we should be well protected."

* * *

Colony (Year 0, Day 16)

Tonin was nervous. He was about to present an idea to Kaden and several others that could cause some problems, it could also be the solution to several other problems as well. The only real enemy he had to face was decades of negative publicity the idea had garnered in their old galaxy. In order to counter this, he would need to make sure he had all of his information presented in the best possible light. Glancing once again at the files on his data pad, he checked for the hundredth time, verifying he had the information he needed from the historical archives.

"Tonin, I am sorry we kept you waiting, however, we had to discuss a few things relating to planetary security before you arrived. It went longer than we thought it would." Kaden greeted him. "Come on in and take a seat."

Doing so, Tonin presented a calm front before beginning his presentation. "I have a couple ideas I would like to see implemented that could help with fleet construction and operations. The first ties into the second, meaning the second will not function nearly as well without the first. The way I see it, given enough time I can build more than enough ships to meet the fleet requirements. The problem is crewing the ships. We wont have enough personnel to operate them, and most would sit idle and non-functional. The first idea I had that would fix this is to build ships entirely droid operated. It ..."

"WHAT?" Nera interrupted. "Droid run ships? That has never worked!"

"Actually it has." Feth Te'vos countered. "It was years ago, but the Clone Wars were primarily caused by the rebellion of several groups who used droids to almost entirely crew their ships and fight in their armies."

"Exactly. It led to the downfall of the Old Republic. The problem was never the droids, it was those controlling them that was the cause for the Clone Wars. What they had done was take ships designed for living beings and substituted droids instead. It was not the same as what I want to propose." Tonin countered. "Then there is the fiasco with the Katana Fleet. The events surrounding that disaster were bad timing, bad luck, and bad implementation. The plan I want to suggest would not let the Katana debacle occur again, nor would we be crewing a normal ship entirely with hundreds or thousands of droids as a substitute for a living crew."

Feth chuckled. "You want to build a scaled up version of the Tie-D fighters, that is my guess."

"In a way. By eliminating all space and systems needed by living crew members, we can reduce power usage by a decent amount. It would also give us the ability to build the ships faster. Fewer systems to control means less maintenance on systems that are the most needed on a normal warship. Life support, artificial gravity, water reclamation, and more could be removed completely and give more room for combat related items or systems. I would need some help designing the droid parts of the ship, but it can be done. It would not be as much work as building a brand new ship type from scratch since we already need ships built sooner rather than later." Tonin continued. "The major upsides to this are faster reaction times in combat, and elimination of possible casualties since we have so few people here. With the current fleet list you want me to build, it would require nearly every able bodied adult on the planet to live and work on board ships."

"I may not like it but I do see the necessity of it." Nera responded. "Question is, if the ships are completely automated, how would they be controlled?"

"That is the easy part. The Trade Federation used command ships, mostly droid crews with a living crew for overall control. I was thinking about how you wanted the fleet to be organized, and realized the _ISD III_ hulls you want build would make the perfect command ships. Heavily armed and armored, which will only be improved by the redesign, and still would have a greatly reduced crew that could be very well protected. Until we get one built, we can coordinate them from the ground as long as they are in system. I have to expand the shipyard before we can build anything larger than the cruiser sized vessels anyway." Tonin answered. "And with the proper safety protocols installed on every ship, it would prevent the repeat of the Katana Fleet."

"We would need to see the protocols before this could be approved. Now how does this tie in with your second idea?" Kaden asked.

"The largest problem facing the construction of a ship is working from one point outwards, assembling the ship once piece at a time. What I propose is to make the ships somewhat modular. The weak points of any ship are fairly standard, comm relays, weapons turrets, and engines. I want to make some parts of the ships modular to allow for easy repair and production. We would even be able to produce the items I would need on the ground to free up _Toy Maker_ for the actual framework and hull construction. If an engine is damaged, it would be far easier to just pull it from the socket and replace it with one already built than what we have to do currently, which is cut away all the damaged sections and assemble the new parts in place. My estimates are it would reduce most ship repair times by close to eighty percent. Damaged modules can be brought ground side for repair or recycling."

Nera thought a moment. "How would you make the weapons modular?"

"When Kaden's father reduced the crews on the ships we came here in, he changed the design of the weapons turrets. He installed droid brains for actual weapons control. If we put an armored socket in place of each weapons port, if the weapon is destroyed, it would not leave a weak point on the hull that could be exploited. Then, when the ship makes it back to the shipyard, we just remove the damaged turret module, and put a new one in. Same for the engines, comm arrays, and even some of the internal systems. A shield module could be removed and a new one dropped in, allowing the ship to be back in operation far faster than if we had to do everything using the current method. The reason I want to use weapons modules is simple. How long would it take to remove a turbolaser battery and install an ion cannon in it's place? Weeks in some cases, whereas if we use modules that time drops to a matter of a few hours. It would give each ship a bit more versatility without a complete overhaul. Another positive from this is when new advances are made that improve a weapon or other module, we would be able to upgrade the fleet far faster, as in days or weeks instead of months or years." Tonin plead his case.

Nera nodded. "I would support the modular idea, but I am still not convinced of the completely automated ship. I have concerns on it's effectiveness."

Tonin pulled out his data pad. "That is why I brought everything I could find on operation and combat with droid controlled ships. Some of the files are hundreds of years old. The first attempts were pretty crude, yet it allowed for far superior numbers that won..."

* * *

 **One year later**

 **Colony** (Year 1, Day 8)

Admiral Nera stared out the viewport of the _Toy Maker_. It had been decided months ago that she would be in command of all space forces, giving her the position of Admiral. Kaden had stepped down as commander of military forces and left her and Koth in charge of all military aspects, with Koth being given the rank of General and placed in charge of all ground forces. There had been no further contact with any alien or hostile forces during the last year since they had destroyed the massive ship. Then again, Kaden and Nera had not sent any ships out to look at any other systems. Now that she felt the system defenses were adequate, exploration of the nearby sectors would begin soon.

The one hundred twentieth _Ingot II_ had been finished months ago, replacing _Hope_ and _Future_. The two original _Ingots_ had been scrapped and used for building material for the current fleet. Nera observed Tonin entering new commands into the master console to her right. They were almost a month behind schedule due to Tonin's side project, though the project had merit. Her original skepticism and opinions on Tonin's sanity had been proven incorrect as it began to take shape, Tonin's " _Sentinel_ " stations.

" _Sentinel_ " was massive, far larger than _Toy Maker_ could have built in one piece before it's expansion. So the pieces, square tubes one hundred meters wide, were built and assembled by tugs and worker droids in zero g. The cube, nearly fifteen hundred meters long on each side, was larger than an _Imperial II_ Star Destroyer, but had far less mass. It sat in geosynchronous orbit one thousand kilometers above Elmar's Dream. Tonin had created a work of art in the form of a defensive battle station, a fully automated bastion made to look like a museum art sculpture from a distance.

Since it was powered by two hypermatter reactors the same size as those found on an _Imperial II_ Star Destroyer, it would be very difficult to overpower for any ship smaller than an _SSD_. The shields were double layered, similar to how the planetary shields were for Coruscant worked, though on a much smaller scale. Being stationary, it had no need of the power drain the massive _ISD_ s engines incurred. The power not allocated to the shield systems and station power were utilized by the weapons which adorned the six sides of the station. Each side possessed ten dual heavy turbo laser turrets, fifteen quad turbo lasers batteries, fifty proton torpedo launchers, and five ion cannons.

While they each could hold up to a thousand fighter sized craft, they were not even close to capacity, less than two hundred fighters were docked. Due to all the fighter sized craft being droid controlled, it was not necessary for them to be docked most of the time. They only needed to dock for maintenance, allowing for most of the fighters to be on constant patrol around the system. The station even had the capability of upgrading the current fighter force with new weapons and equipment. Barring combat damage repairs, each Sentinel station could provide maintenance for nearly ten thousand droid fighters with no delays.

The current patrolling fighter craft numbered sixteen thousand, with twelve thousand upgraded TIE-D fighters and four thousand of the new TIE-DBs. Tonin had been busy with making upgrades to the original designs provided with Toy Maker. The new designs gave shields and an extra pair of blaster cannons to the TIE-Ds meaning they were much harder to damage, and had twice the firepower. It reduced their speed, yet greatly increased their longevity in combat.

The original TIE Bombers were manned craft with two pods between the wings. One pod had been the manned cockpit, and the other a concussion missile launcher. Since there would be a droid brain controlling the new fighters, the cockpit was no longer really needed. So each pod had been redesigned by Tonin to include a rapid fire proton torpedo launcher and four blaster cannons. With the much higher firepower of eight blaster cannons, and the ability to launch nearly twenty proton torpedoes in less than ten seconds, a squadron of them could take cause massive damage to all but the toughest targets. The new TIE-DBs were still as slow as the older Bombers had been so they were also shielded to give them a better chance of survival.

Nera thought about her fleet, as Kaden and others had pointed out she had the most experience of any of the people here as to fleet tactics. She had two _Imperial III_ Star Destroyers, twelve _Nova-D_ carriers, and one hundred twenty each of the _Ingot IIs_ and _Lancers_ under her command, plus the assortment of fighters. With the _Lancers_ and _Ingot II_ s being fully droid operated, and each new _ISD III_ requiring only twenty crew, she only had forty under her command. The new ships had been built using a new alloy using the metals they had discovered in this system, both on planet and in the two asteroid belts. Stronger and lighter, it gave her new ships increased speed and maneuvering ability, and greater durability. The new _Ingot II_ s had been built without the cargo holds that had been part of _Future_ and _Hope_ ; instead, a honeycomb of bracing and armor plates now filled the space the cargo holds once had. These new ships had three times the durability of the original designs, and would be very hard to kill.

As Admiral Nera returned from her thoughts, she watched as the shipyard began to chew through asteroids being fed into the atomic furnaces by a line of nearly a hundred tugs. The asteroids were being brought from the inner asteroid belt of the system not far away. _Toy Maker_ had been moved after the _Sentinel_ stations had been completed the day before. A defensive force of ten _Ingot IIs_ , ten _Lancers_ , and nearly two thousand fighter sized craft were set to guard the shipyard till more permanent defenses could be placed close by.

Those defenses had already been built and were being installed nearby. Two hundred defensive satellites had been assembled and were being brought online. Each consisted of a hypermatter reactor a planetary ion cannon, five quad turbo laser batteries, and a shield generator. They were fairly small in size, only sixty meters long, but packed a powerful punch. Those, when combined with the planned upgrades to the defenses of _Toy Maker_ , would make the shipyard nigh impregnable. Then again, the Death Star had been thought to be the same.

* * *

 **New ship types**

Tie-D (only two changes from wiki)

4 laser cannons

star fighter shields

Tie-DB (modified TIE-B)

8 laser cannons (4 on each pod)

2 proton torpedo launchers (10 missiles each)

no concussion missiles or bomb bay

star fighter shields

 _ISD III_ (no command tower)

20 crew

50 Heavy Turbolaser batteries (20 fore, 15 port, 15 starboard) (22 GT per shot)

100 Turbolaser batteries (40 fore, 30 port, 30 starboard) (179 MT per shot)

20 Heavy Ion Cannons (10 fore, 5 port, 5 starboard) (8 GT per shot)

80 Quad laser cannons (anti-fighter defense) (30 MT per shot)

160 Tie-D or Tie-DB

10 Wampa Assault Landers

 _Tombstone_ Defense satellites

5 Quad laser cannon

1 heavy Ion Cannon

shields (Victory II strength)

 _Nova-D_ Fighter Carrier

300 long x 200 wide x 60 high (meters)

20 Quad Laser cannons (anti-fighter and point defense use)

200 Tie-D or Tie-DB


	11. 10 Exploration

Chapter Ten

Colony (Year 2, Day 3)

Kaden sat at his desk at home, reading his data pad containing the current status reports from all of the division heads. Bimonthly reports came to him for his review concerning the progress of the projects currently running. Most of the reports were the usual issues that cropped up concerning a small town, food stores, security updates, maintenance reports, and factory production. Those were fairly brief and boring, but necessary. The other reports had his interest though.

A significant population explosion had occurred since they had touched down on Promise Four. Over four hundred new children had been born, bringing the total number of people to almost three thousand. Not that it hadn't been expected, just not to this degree. At least it meant people were comfortable here, and felt secure enough to think of more than just survival. It did, however, create a bit of strain on the educational system already in place. It would be a few years before the new citizens of Elmar's Dream joined the school age children, but it would require expansion of the current school to accommodate them. With the large number of new children, new homes were built as needed. This caused an expansion to the current settlement to give everyone room to grow. And with most of the original crews of the _Hope_ and _Future_ being unneeded for the moment, they were also living in the colony.

The reports from the fields used for farming were very promising, due to the planet's tilt, there really were no seasons here. Crops could be grown year round with no off season due to bad weather or temperature swings. This gave the town a surplus of crops for the now booming population. The excess harvest had been placed in cryostorage for now, in case an emergency arose. The only issues that had come from the farms were the roaming herds of native wildlife, which seemed to be untamable for the current efforts. The herds had been causing some minor issues when they roamed into the fields, trampling over the fences, and eating some of the crops near the eastern edge of the farms.

Factory production was proceeding rather well, with over two hundred shuttles now in service for transport to ships or around the planet. The bare necessary items had been created in abundance, and many creature comfort goods followed soon after. The production of recreation and leisure items had been a huge help to the morale of the colonists. They had access to almost all of the trappings of their home galaxy, excluding the few items that could not be built or grown here. Droid production had increased dramatically, and they now outnumbered living people nearly fifty to one.

Six thousand Droidikas were currently being used for planet side security, with another one thousand on each _ISD_ _III_ in orbit. General Koth had requested that droids be used for the military force exclusively, due to the low population numbers they currently had. Koth had spent weeks programming in volumes of information on military tactics into the droids under his command. The mistakes of the Clone Wars would not be repeated here. The military might under Koth's control would be as effective as any other military unit he had known, and far more efficient. When combined with the automated turrets scattered in defensive positions, he estimated it would take at least a legion of stormtroopers to beat him.

The current team of scientists had been very busy. Tens of thousands of samples were being analyzed from around the planet, and a myriad of new species and materials were studied and cataloged. Some of the new plants had either medical or nutritional value, and were being slated for planting on the next crop cycle. New materials discovered were being tested for use in replacing resources they could not acquire in this galaxy. They would need substitutes for only a few substances, however, they had been fairly successful in finding adequate minerals.

The main project though was the large metal ring they had discovered in the artificial cave. This was the report Kaden was interested in. Some information had come fairly quickly after discovery. At an age of over a million years, yet still looking like new, it was an amazing piece of sculpture at first. Some had thought it was a communication device, others just art. It had not taken long until someone had compared the symbols spaced around the ring to the constellations visible in the night sky. A few similarities had been noted, and once stellar drift had been accounted for, they were able to verify nearly all of the symbols as star clusters. There was one symbol they could not locate in the dark of night, no matter how much they tried, and no one had a clue what it meant.

"Feth, this Kaden. Do you have a moment?" he spoke into his comlink.

"Sure. I was about to head back to the cave to try a few things."

"I will join you. I want to take another look at it."

"Meet me at the shuttles in twenty minutes." Feth replied.

Kaden stood from his desk and spoke to his daughter, "Mira, let your mother know I will be back later. Keep an eye on your sister for me please."

"Ok, papa" The words came from her without causing her to look up from where she and her sister were playing a game at the table in the corner.

* * *

Feth and Kaden were the only people in the well lit but silent cave. Permanent lighting had been installed long ago, even though there usually was no one here. The six Droidikas originally assigned this location for security remained, however, due to Koth's opinion that unknown items should be kept under guard. The original science teams that had once worked here around the clock had been reduced to a small team of four or five here only when they had some new test or idea on how the ring worked.

Feth broke the silence. "I have been thinking about the symbol we cant identify. We keep looking at constellations for all of the other symbols, but this last one has had us stumped. What if the last symbol is not a constellation at all?"

"What purpose is it then?"

"Think about it. To pinpoint an exact point in space, you need reference points. The math is very complicated. We use droids to do our hyperspace calculations because doing them by hand takes days. I think the symbols on the ring and pedestal are those reference points. I think it is a three dimensional coordinate system. And the last symbol is us, well, this planet anyway."

"I think the astromech droid on the shuttle should be able to use these reference points, and the stellar drift pattern we created, to locate other rings like this. Think of it as a kind of map to other places in this galaxy." Feth continued his analysis. "That would give us an idea as to how wild spread these things are. Unfortunately, we still are not sure what the ring actually does, if anything."

"You still don't agree with the communication idea?" Kaden asked.

"Not sold on it yet. These rings are made to handle massive amounts of energy, somewhere near the total power output of an _ISD III_. That is far too high for a simple or even a more complex communications system. I am not sure what it does, but I am pretty sure that it isn't a giant comlink."

"Do me a favor. Using this coordinate system, get me a list of the nearest hundred locations. I will forward them to Admiral Nera. Lets test your theory out and see if it is correct. We can send probe droids to the locations on the list and work from there."

Feth nodded. "I think that would be best. Which probe droids are you going to send?"

"Likely the exploration and survey droids. They were designed to chart unexplored systems in wild space and the outer rim before the fall of the Old Republic. The ones we have been building have had their designs updated to the latest programming and hardware."

"Ahhh, so they can be used to chart hyperspace travel lanes as well?"

"That is one of the main purposes" Kaden replied. "Admiral Nera is wary of taking any of the fleet out at present. While she may know the theory in charting new lanes, I don't think anyone here actually has done it before outside of a classroom."

"Will these probe droids be able to do a scan for mineral content on any planets or moons in the systems they are sent to? The mineral the ring is made from is one we have not found anywhere in system so far."

"We should be able to get a fairly detailed scan of any celestial bodies in the systems, as well as mineral content, and scans for plant or animal life. They should also get enough data on the gravity wells each produces to allow us to begin a fairly accurate galaxy map for hyperspace travel."

Feth smiled. "Then would you allow me to contact Admiral Nera so we can begin sending out these probes?"

"Whenever you are ready."

* * *

Admiral Nera had been going over the list of locations she had received from Feth Te'vos, the head of the science division. The list had been sent to her a two weeks earlier, and the recon probes launched after a brief meeting between herself, Kaden, and Feth. This being a smaller galaxy, travel times were reduced greatly for the most part. But without the usual hyperspace lanes already being charted, they would be the ones charting them, a task she had never before performed herself. She knew the theory behind it, every ship pilot did; however, in her home galaxy, all of the lanes had already been mapped and charted, so she had no practical experience. The last of the recon probes had returned only a few hours ago, and the data from it copied into the main computer archive down on the planet.

In preparation of their task of creating a galactic hyperspace map, they sent recon probe droids to each of the star systems on the list. Not wanting to be taking any chances, they had sent out the entire inventory of a thousand recon probes. The first hundred had been used for Feth's list, while the other nine hundred went to the nearest nine hundred stars not on the list. This was a massive use of resources, but a necessary one. Since they were making this galaxy their home, they would need a very detailed galactic map if they wanted or needed to leave their system.

The list of stars Feth had provided was fairly accurate. All of the stars on the list either had planets or moons. Not all of the systems had the ability to support life, but there was a surprising number of habitable planets on the list. Out of one hundred possibles, seventy three had planets in the habitable zone, some with plant and animal life. The other twenty seven systems still had planets, however, none were habitable. Unfortunately, these recon droids were not able to actually enter atmosphere. They were designed for locating, scanning, and charting orbiting objects in a system only. They would be able to find planets, moons, asteroids, and much more; however, they could not get decent images of the surface of those celestial bodies.

Of the stars not on the list, most had no planets. There were a few proto-planets, ice balls, gas giants with occasional moons, and many asteroid belts scanned by the remaining nine hundred recon probes. While they would be useful when it came to mining or gas harvesting, they presented a navigational hazard that had to be accounted for in creating an accurate galaxy map.

To be honest, a dozen astromech droids were doing the actual work on charting the hyperspace lanes from the data being received from the recon probes. The complexity of the calculations involved to even make a hyperspace jump with an accurate map were staggering when doing it by hand. It was why astromech droids had been created in the first place. More astromech droids and recon droids were being built to add to the workforce necessary to chart an entire galaxy. At the current pace, it would take several centuries finish the map, so additional droids were necessary.

Admiral Nera's head began to ache with the pain only a student in an advanced math class could sympathize with. As she reached for her comlink, to notify Feth that she was done for the day, her thoughts froze.

"Admiral Nera to Kaden."

"This is Kaden."

"Just a thought, once we have a map of the stars in this sector, have you given any thought to communications once we are outside the normal com range for our ships? We don't have a holonet network available in this galaxy."

"Damn, I hadn't given any thought to it. I doubt any one else has either. I think we have the plans for the relay stations somewhere, and if not we will have to build a relay network from scratch. Give Feth a call and ask him if he knows if we have the designs for the holonet relay network. If he doesn't, ask if he can put a couple of his division to work creating a new network we can set up as we go."

"Understood. He was my next call anyway. Have a good night. Admiral Nera out."


	12. 11 Rescue

A/N: Sorry for the delays, this is taking longer than I anticipated. Inserting new chapters without completely destroying my original story line completely is taking longer than i originally intended.

Chapter Eleven

Colony (Year 3, Day 41, 1140 hours)

Devark was going over the latest reports from the multitude of recon probes, and the detailed scans made by the new _AutEx_ automated exploration ships. While Devark had been part of the security contingent under Koth when they set out from their original galaxy, his position had changed to that of adviser to the head of the city council, Kaden Hylar. Kaden had invited him into his home as he would a brother after the loss of Devark's wife and daughter three years ago. Kaden was a man of his word, and had treated him like family. Kaden's wife had helped talk him through his pain and grief, and helped him come to terms with the loss. Kaden's two children, asleep in their rooms not far away, had latched onto him as they would an uncle, often physically latching onto his legs making it impossible for him to move.

Returning from memory to the present, Devark continued reading the reports, finally finishing the recent recon droid data. With over five thousand recon probes currently in service, going through the raw data would take him decades; however, the report summaries were fairly short and detailed enough to give him what he needed. Each summary listed number and class of each celestial body, mineral content, radiation type and levels, gravity signature measurement, and either a positive or negative listed under plant or animal life.

The reports from the _AutEx_ ships first deployed last week were much more detailed. They should be considering the time and effort put into their creation and deployment. The design was a result of the combined efforts of Admiral Nera, Feth Te'vos, and Tonin Suros. Together they had spent a month planning out what they needed the ship to be able to do. The ship brought about from their collective efforts was based on the _Lambda_ shuttle design. Instead of room for cargo and people, every bit of space was taken up by high powered scanning equipment and two additional power generators. The only part of the ship not packed with gear was the cockpit, which normally it had room for two crew members.

The new design removed both pilot and co-pilot chairs completely, as well as most of the controls and displays a living pilot would need. Instead, five astromech droids were bolted down and data cables from the ship's systems were directly routed to each droid, bypassing the need for instruments and controls normally used by a pilot. Each droid could handle the function of the entire ship, however, having five instead of one allowed for a reduced workload for each droid as well as being a redundant feature to prevent loss of the ship.

Another change was the removal of all weapons, to make room for the installation of sensors. This meant the ship had more power available for the shields and engines. The _Lambda_ shuttle had never been built for serious combat, and the weapons normally installed were not a match for most current fighters. The power boost to the engines and shields, however, would give the new _AutEx_ ships a much better chance of escape from whatever may threaten the ship.

The _AutEx_ reports peaked his interest almost immediately. Of the ten systems being used as a field test, eight showed ruins of some kind, and three currently had sentient life. Looking closer at the images sent back with the reports, Devark noticed evidence of sentient humanoid life. He saw images of cultivated fields, artificial structures, and herds of livestock. Smoke from cooking fires was visible, as well as huts made from animal skins.

There was also evidence of recent fighting on one of the planets, although most damage was several years old. A fairly decent sized city in ruins, with burning buildings and partially collapsed walls. Devark could tell the fighting had been particularly bad, but recognized the signs of guerrilla warfare evident in the images. He also noted the _AutEx_ sent to this system had been driven off by a group of small fighter sized craft and a much larger ship. Skipping ahead to the images of the pursuing craft, he recognized the shape and coloration of the hostile forces. Admiral Nera had fought one of these ships nearly three years ago.

* * *

Several hours later, the town council was reviewing the information received concerning the hostile ships, and the recorded activities over the planet Devark had briefed them on. A more detailed report on the incomplete scans of the planet showed over ten thousand humanoid life signs on the planet. Scattered readings of small power sources across the city were evidence of power generation beyond that of a primitive society. Enhancements of the images also showed what looked to be energy weapons discharge and active combat in several locations. The five members of the council were currently discussing what action, if any, should be taken.

"It looks like their civilization was wiped out for the most part. Not as bad as Topwara, but they wont recover any time soon." General Koth commented.

"I noticed that as well." Kaden agreed. "I assume some of the life signs on the planet are the hostile forces, so around ten thousand survivors from what looks to be a city of over two hundred thousand people."

Admiral Nera spoke up. "I can have a fleet there within twelve hours. But what then? Say we take out any hostile ships and ground forces, what do we do then? Unless you want to station a fleet there permanently, there is nothing stopping another hostile fleet from arriving."

"That is a definite concern." Dera seconded. "We have the resources to feed a much larger population that we currently have. And we could help them rebuild, but without some defenses, they would be easy targets."

""If I might offer a suggestion?" Feth Te'vos said. "There are several options available. The first option, and one I do not agree with, is that we do nothing. The second is we drive off or destroy the hostile forces and help them rebuild. The third is we help them evacuate the planet and move somewhere else."

"Unless we are committing to defending the planet for them, evacuation would seem necessary. Problem is we do not know where to take them. There is no evidence they had space flight." Admiral Nera added.

Kaden was silent for a moment before speaking. "We could bring them here. The first step is to take out the hostile forces. So we need to move quickly. Anyone object to Admiral Nera taking a fleet there immediately?"

Murmurs of agreement came from the rest of the council. "I will be en-route within half an hour. I would appreciate General Koth bringing some of his troops as well. We may lose some droids, but once their ships are gone, we should be able to clear the hostile ground troops."

"Agreed, this would be a good test of their capabilities. After the last engagement inside the hostile ship three years ago, we have upgraded their combat programming. Ten _Wampa_ assault landers should be enough. I will co-ordinate with you from the ground once we arrive." General Koth stated as he stood. "Let me go get the droids loaded."

Kaden also stood. "Good luck to both of you. And may the force be with you as well. Let me know once hostile forces have been eliminated. I will send one of the freighters with relief supplies in case they wish to stay and rebuild."

* * *

Unknown planet (Year 3, Day 41, 2300 hours)

Dropping out of hyperspace, Admiral Nera's fleet appeared not far outside the orbit of the three hostile ships. Within moments, emerald and azure energy streamed away from the assembled fleet under her control. Centered around her _ISD_ _III_ command ship, her fleet was larger than anything she had taken into combat before. Flanking the _ISD III_ were forty _Ingot II_ s, and forty _Lancer_ frigates, while the six _Nova_ -D carriers hung back behind the formation.

Immediately upon exiting hyperspace, nearly twelve hundred Tie-D fighters poured out of the carriers, splitting into two groups. Half headed to act as a fighter screen for the capital ships, while the other half streaked ahead to attack the enemy fighters closer to the planet. The _ISD III_ deployed it's fighter sized craft, which consisted of one hundred sixty Tie-DB that came forth from the massive ship to arc in three formations toward the enemy behemoths.

As the three massive ships of the enemy reacted to the sudden arrival and weapons fire of such a large fleet, their slow turns made them very large targets. Without the presence of shields, there was nothing stopping the combined firepower of forty one capital ships, who's turbolasers and ion cannons impacted the purple and blue hulls and burned through armor and decks. Explosions rocked all three massive ships, burning atmosphere, bulkheads, and flesh.

The ion cannon impacts had a different effect. Instead of shorting out circuits and computers, they caused the organic ships to go into seizures. Overloading the central nervous system of one of the three ships, all functions of the ship began to flicker on and off. Loss if life support would take time to have any real effect, however, the loss of control over other systems was apparent. The engines went wild, and when combined with the severe damage done by the turbolaser and heavy turbolaser fire coming from the massive fleet, the ship ripped itself apart. The explosion created as it lost structural integrity created a massive energy wave which added to the damage already done to it's sister ships. In less than three minutes, they were nothing more than a cloud of expanding debris.

The battle was not yet over, considering there were still over a thousand enemy fighters both in space and down on the planet. With the three capitol ships no longer involved, they began attacking with suicidal fervor. Tie-Ds swarmed over them, spraying bolts of emerald death. Having their targets destroyed before being able to engage, the Tie-DBs began unloading their payload into the enemy fighters that approached the fleet. Blue missiles in the hundreds came forth littering the black of space with tiny but brilliant explosions in a massive wave of destruction.

With the destruction of the enemy capital ships, and the elimination of most of the fighters that still posed a threat, the role of Admiral Nera's fleet changed. No longer on the offensive, the fleet moved out of their current formation. The _ISD III_ , with a dozen _Ingot IIs_ and _Lancers_ , moved into a defensive position five hundred kilometers over the city. Smaller groups of capital ships split off creating a defensive umbrella around the rest of the planet.

As the threat of space diminished, nearly half the Tie-D fighters turned toward the planet. Upon entering atmosphere, they began hunting in groups of eight for any remaining enemy fighters. They cleared the air for the ten _Wampa_ landers to touch down and deploy their cargo of a thousand Droidikas.

* * *

General Koth was happy with the programming upgrades that had been made to his 'troops'. The droids moved together as real troops would. After landing in a field close to the large upright ring, identical to the one he had seen before, his troops established a well defended temporary perimeter. Within moments, groups of five droids began rolling out, with instructions to target the hostile aliens that had been encountered three years before. These hunter-killer groups were heading to locations the ships in orbit had found as enemy encampments and strong points. Between the droid troops, and scans made by the orbiting fleet, the green skinned humanoids didn't stand a chance.

Within three hours, scans showed no remaining enemy forces. Over two thousand enemy casualties for the loss of one hundred eighty droids. The inert droids, while not technically destroyed, would require massive repairs due to the weapons they had been hit with. The blue bolts fired at them had shorted out the shields, and also nearly every internal circuit. It would likely be easier to build more than to repair the ones lost in this engagement. Since it wasn't a good idea to leave them laying around, they would be recovered and sent back to the factory to be recycled into raw materials for new droids.

Once the hostile forces were removed from the ground, only two hundred droids remained with General Koth. The rest were sent back up to the ISD III along with their landing craft. Only two _Wampa_ landers remained on the ground. Shortly after the fighting on the ground was ended, the freighter with relief supplies entered the atmosphere to land in the large open area inside the defended perimeter. Once settled, the engines powered down as several ramps opened from the freighter allowing worker droids to unload the food and medical supplies. A dozen of the worker droids were set to assemble a pre-fab medical building and temporary kitchen. They two new structures were not very large, and were completed within an hour.

The lack of weapons fire combined with the noise of the freighter landing in the city did have some effect on the surviving population of the planet. General Koth noticed first the few scouts of the native people, men and women in armor or uniforms as well as weapons of some sort. Unfortunately, none of the locals spoke any language Koth recognized. He was glad Kaden had reminded him to take several translation droids with him on the shuttle. To reduce the tension and hopefully begin to earn the trust of those in hiding, he removed his helmet and weapon and placed them in the ground next to the ramp of one of the landers. One of the translation droids followed him as he then walked toward the scouts not far outside the perimeter made by the combat droids.


	13. 12 Relief

Chapter Twelve

Unknown Planet Unknown planet (Year 3, Day 42, 0500 hours)

General Koth slowly approached the building the scouts were occupying with his empty hands in front of him, palms out. The sensors in his armor showed two of the scouts at ground level hiding behind sturdy walls to provide cover while they observed his slow steady pacing. Three others were on higher floors of the building providing fire support should any shooting start. The gold colored translation droid kept pace ten feet behind General Koth, and its metal feet causing it to slip on gravel and other debris littering the ground. Its ungainly movements seemed almost comical by comparison to the surefooted movement of General Koth.

Thirty feet from the building, General Koth came to a halt. Waiting a few moments, to not startle the scouts into opening fire, he slowly turned to the translation droid, calling it forward audibly and with a slow hand movement. Once the droid moved to his side, he began speaking to it in a calm clear voice. One General Koth's instructions were conveyed to the droid, the droid turned toward the scouts and began. The instructions were fairly simple. Cycling through every language the droid knew that humans were able to speak, it was to offer free food and medical supplies to anyone in the area.

As the droid was performing its assigned task, General Koth slowly reached to one of his belt pouches to pull out some preserved food he had brought with him. After removing one piece of jerky and taking a bite, he brought out a second ration pouch of jerky. Making obvious movements, he tossed the unopened ration pouch through the open doorway of the building. Waiting a few moments, and taking a second bite of his food, he then reached for his canteen, taking a drink. Closing it up again, he repeated the throw to place the container just inside the doorway.

By this point, the droid had cycled through over forty languages with no response. Not that General Koth was expecting a response that was understandable. From the scattered radio transmissions they had intercepted, the language of the local people was something new. The three translation droids on Admiral Nera's ship and the one with General Koth were linked up working on creating a translation matrix of the new language. At the current rate, it would take several hours for a basic understanding of simple and common words. Koth was hoping that the scouts were using their radios to talk back and forth, maybe using some of the words the translation droids would need, like "food".

After a few more minutes, he turned back to the droid and ordered it back to the ship. General Koth decided had decided that perhaps a simpler method of communications would be preferable for the moment. Gesturing to his last remaining piece of jerky, he then pointed toward the cargo crates being stacked in dozens of places all over the clearing where the freighter was almost finished unloading. He repeated the movements once more then slowly followed the droid back to the waiting medical building and mobile mess hall.

* * *

Unknown Planet (Year 3, Day 42, 0730 hours)

It was a full two hours later that the first scouts followed him, over an hour after the freighter had lifted off leaving only two _Wampa_ landers in the field along with the mobile kitchen and medical facility. A pair of armed and armored men slowly walked along the same path General Koth had taken to return to the no longer empty field. They were very cautious, proceeding much slower than General Koth had moved while observing everything along their path. Worker droids carrying crates stayed clear of the pair as droids finished setting up a small refugee center. Portable shelters were being set up, while crates were distributed to various near each shelter.

The duo eventually saw General Koth, who appeared to be taking a nap on a small patch of grass near one of the two larger buildings that had been assembled. As they came closer, still wary, the gold droid spoke up and Koth stirred. Opening his eyes, he saw the two scouts. Both were short for humans, and their armor showed signs of heavy use. Only one had any evidence of injury, with bandages visible on one shoulder.

General Koth slowly sat up, making sure the pair had no reason to worry. As he stood, he motioned for them to follow as he went toward an open doorway. They followed as he entered the building. The two local scouts could easily identify what the purpose of the building was once inside. No matter where in the universe you are, a mess hall is almost universally recognized. Long tables with chairs took up most of the floor space, leaving room between for people to walk. One wall had a waist high metal counter with nearly two dozen covered . As General Koth walked over toward one end of the counter, he picked up a small metal meal tray and motioned the two natives to do the same. Proceeding down the line past each covered dish, he used utensils next to each platter to place some of each type of food onto his tray. Once he had a bit of each on his tray, he went to one of the tables and sat down to eat.

The two scouts had been talking quietly as they watched him and copied his actions before sitting directly across from the table from him. They hadn't noticed that had followed them from a distance and remained just inside but to the side of the doorway until they were sitting down. As they began to taste the food, the droid spoke to General Koth.

"Sir, Admiral Nera wished to relay to you that no new enemy ships have appeared since we arrived. Currently, no enemy activity has been detected on the planet or in nearby space. Your latest status update as well as hers have been sent to Kaden. She also asks if you need any further resources."

General Koth noticed the two across from him jump slightly as the droid began speaking. Skittish they may be, but they had enough combat experience to not hit the floor and begin firing. They listened, not understanding the language, to the conversation as the droid and General Koth spoke. "Tell her I appreciate the update. While I think we have enough resources down here, the language barrier seems to be the only real hangup. Also let her know I have made contact with two natives, and that we are having something to eat."

The droid responded a few moments later. "Your message has been received. Admiral Nera just sent the latest version of the translation protocols based on radio communications and my own recordings of them speaking. Would you like me to attempt to translate for you?"

"Yes please. Ask these two if they find the food to their liking."

When the droid spoke to them, the pair of locals didn't respond at first. It took them a moment to realize the droid was speaking to them. It took a few tries for the droid to get the correct words, but the reply was expected. "They say the food is not what they are used to, however, most of it is pretty good."

General Koth chuckled. "About the same my reaction to it. Any trouble translating?"

"Some, Sir. They are using a mix of normal speech and some coded speech in their communications. There is no encryption from what I understand, however, they do use word substitution codes."

"I see. How long do you think it would take you to complete the translation protocol for this language?"

"With only these two, maybe months. However, if I were able to be present for a higher volume of vocal communications, then as little as two or three days. At present I should be able to provide translations for the most common used terms with a very high degree of accuracy."

"Good. Then please inform them that we have plenty of food and medical supplies available here for any who need them. Also that we are setting up shelters for them to use."

The droid spoke with the two for several minutes. Once the droid was done letting them know what was available for them to use for their people, the two talked between themselves for a few more minutes. General Koth was just about finished with his food, as were the two natives, when the one with the bandage on his shoulder asked if they could remove the shrapnel. When the droid relayed the question, Koth nodded and stood slowly. Picking up his tray, he walked to the conveyor belt near the door and placed his tray on it. Motioning them to follow, he waited as they did the same with their trays, then he led them out of the mess hall toward the medical building. Again the translation droid followed behind at a distance.

It was almost identical to the mess hall from the outside, but inside was a vast difference. Instead of tables, chairs, and a counter laden with food there were twenty elevated beds each with a different looking droid standing next to it. At the far end of the room were several large clear tanks filled with a pinkish liquid. As General Koth went toward the nearest bed, the two following him stopped just inside the doorway, unsure as to what most of the equipment was. They looked to Koth as he motioned them closer.

As they approached, Koth was talking to the droid next to the bed. Once they were next to the bed, General Koth spoke to the translation droid while he pointed to the injured man. "Would you please ask him to remove his armor and shirt so the MD droid can treat his wound?"

"I believe I can, Sir." replied the droid before it changed languages to speak to the two natives.

It took a few moments, however the injured man removed his armor and sat down on the bed. He nearly jumped back off the bed when the MD droid moved closer to him. It seemed the locals did not have any experience with droids. It took less than ten minutes for the droid to apply a topical anesthetic and remove the two pieces of shrapnel from his shoulder. Once the skin was closed up again, and a small bacta patch applied, the MD droid moved back to its original position to await its next patient.

The two men had been speaking back and forth during the entire procedure, amazed as the droid and the medical technology. It did not take them long before they were asking questions of General Koth through the translation droid. The stream of questions seemed almost near unending.

Once the inquiries were translated, General Koth replied. "We have enough food in crates to feed ten thousand people for a month. We also have enough medical supplies to take care of anyone with injuries. For the moment, we just want to make sure your people are healthy. There should be enough shelters for about a thousand people set up by sundown. As for any questions about what happens after, I am not the best person to talk to. I can send a message to the leader of my people so he can meet with whoever you wish to discuss any plans for the future."

One of the men nodded, then spoke to his partner. Almost immediately, the shorter of the two jogged out of the building and headed back to the area the rest of the scouts were waiting. The second man, who had been uninjured spoke again, this time to Koth. The translation droid acting as intermediary proved Koth with words he could understand. "I sent him to let the others know it is safe. It may take a while, but I will remain here until the others come. I am not sure who is in charge anymore. Our government was either taken by the Wraith or died when they attacked. As far as I know I am the highest ranking member of our military still alive. Would you mind telling me how you were able to beat the Wraith?"

General Koth listened, and thought a moment. "Wraith? Is that what you call the ones who attacked you?"

The man looked a bit shocked. "You mean you do not know of them?"

"We are not from this part of space. This is only our second encounter with them. We know very little of who they are or what they want. We just know they are hostile."

The man's shocked look faded a bit as he thought before he spoke, the translation coming through the droid. "You are lucky the Wraith did not know of you. They attack any planet that can poses a threat to them. Every planet we have contact with knows of them. They awaken every century to take people from all over the galaxy to use as food. Throughout our history, we have never been able to stop them, and have never met a people that did not know of the Wraith."

General Koth now looked concerned. This was new information on what appeared to be a very hostile species that possibly fed on sentient species. This was not news the people at home would want to hear, but hear it they would. "Would you be willing to teach us all you know about the Wraith? I doubt they will take the loss of three of their large ships lightly. They will be looking for my people, if they aren't already."

The translation droid proved to be an adequate intermediary, and the reply did not take long. "For the help you have given my people today, and the supplies you have brought, I will tell you everything I know about them."

General Koth nodded. "Alright. I will tell you what I know, although,I was not part of the fight in space. When we arrived in our ships, there were three large ships in orbit over the city..."


	14. 13 Sateda

Chapter Thirteen

Unknown Planet (Year 3, Day 46, 0930 hours)

On the fourth day after destroying the enemy ships, now known as the Wraith, Kaden shuttle exited hyperspace. He had been kept updated on the status of the fleet as well as the current conditions and activities occurring on the ground. As the _Lambda_ shuttle approached an empty area of the refugee camp, Kaden got his first look at the now destroyed city.

Small craters were scattered around the city, both in the ground and on the sides of buildings. The buildings themselves were all destroyed or damaged in some way, with very few being usable. What once were multistory buildings now stood as piles of rubble, with occasional support struts jutting out like macabre bones. The formerly beautiful and practical streets were clogged with debris or blocked by the collapsed buildings. Kaden had seen this level of destruction before, and knew immediately that rebuilding would be beyond the survivors of this world.

Moments after the shuttle landed, the ramp descended with Kaden departing the shuttle almost before the ramp touched the ground. Waiting for him was General Koth, sans helmet, who escorted him to one of the portable shelters. Upon entering, Kaden saw this shelter had been re-purposed as a mobile command center for the apparent leader of the survivors. From what Kaden could tell, the leader was coordinating search and rescue groups to recover as many people as possible based on the information from Admiral Nera's sensor sweeps of the city and the surrounding area. Once the last group had been given orders, the majority of the people in the command center departed to their assigned tasks. This left Kaden, General Koth, the leader of the survivors, and two others who were quietly discussing information over a map of the city.

General Koth made the introductions, with the assistance of the translation droid and its vastly improved translation software. "May I present Commander Tyr, currently the highest ranking member of the military, and leader of the survivors here on the planet Sateda. Commander Tyr, I present you Kaden Hylar, the Chief Councilor for our planet."

Commander Tyr nodded, and his translated reply came through the droid. "It is nice to meet you, just wish it wasn't due to most of my people being lost."

"I understand the sentiment. I am sorry we were unable to send help sooner. I would like to speak with you for a bit if you are not busy. This is about what your people want to do next. So if you would like any others to join in the discussion, I would have no issue with it." Kaden said, waiting for the translation droid to finish.

Nodding his head, Tyr turned to the two others conversing over the map and gave them a short command which was not translated by the droid. Within moments they both sprinted out the door. Commander Tyr turned back to Kaden and spoke. "I sent them to invite several of the elders. It may take a few minutes for them to arrive. I am not comfortable with making decisions without some discussion among my people."

"Completely understandable." Kaden agreed. "Then we wait for their arrival before beginning that discussion. On a different topic, how are your people doing? Is there anything else we may be able to help with at the moment?"

* * *

It was almost an hour later when the small group of elders entered the command center. Of the six elders, two appeared to have been recently injured, and were being assisted by the pair of men who had been previously going over the city map. Once they set down their charges, they returned to their task as the six elders began conversing with Commander Tyr. As it was a conversation not directed at Kaden or Koth, the droid again did not translate. After ten minutes, with some animated and angry shouting from one or two of the elders, Commander Tyr turned from the seated elders and retook his own chair at the table with Koth and Kaden.

Tyr began speaking to Kaden, with translations coming from the droid as he spoke. "I suppose it is best to start off with what options do we actually have. We do not want to abuse your aid and we are not sure what other aid is available. I really wish our government was still here, they would be much better at this." He ended quickly as an angry comment was directed at him by one of the elders.

Kaden thought for a moment before he replied. "From what I can tell, you have several options. First, and most difficult for you and us, would be to rebuild and continue as you did before, albeit with a much smaller population than you had before. We would be able to help to an extent, with food and medical supplies. We can also provide worker droids to help clear the city of damaged buildings and debris. This would take decades, maybe longer than a century to rebuild close to what you once had before, and it will be centuries before you population approaches what it was before. With such a drastic amount of loss, it is likely you may be missing people with necessary knowledge or skills in your population, which will make surviving on your own more challenging."

As Kaden's words were translated, quiet muttering came from a few of the elders, while two of them as well as Commander Tyr sat in silence and thought.

Kaden continued. "The second option is to move your people to a different planet. One where you may be able to hide from the Wraith. But that isn't guaranteed. We are unable to say what planets they know of and which ones they are unaware of. The logistics of moving your entire population to another planet is something we can do. If you choose this option, we will help with building a new city, in addition to providing food and medical supplies. We can also install planetary defenses in the future to help prevent this tragedy from occurring again. Unfortunately those defenses take time to build and set up. And some of the defenses are quite large and may take months or years to be completed. This option will take a while as well as we would have to locate a planet fitting your requirements, and we do not know much about this part of the galaxy yet. We only began charting this galaxy about a year ago, and progress is slow."

More muttering came from four of the elders, not as quiet this time. Kaden was prevented from bringing the third option into the discussion by a question from one of the elders who had remained silent since her entry to the command center. "We have heard from Commander Tyr that your people were unaware of the Wraith until very recently. How is it you have not heard about them? And does that have something to do with your people only beginning to know what planets are in the galaxy?"

General Koth was the one who responded via translation droid. "We did not arrive in this galaxy until two years ago. We settled on an uninhabited planet and have avoided leaving it until now. We were tired of the death, politics, destruction, and chaos of our old galaxy so we left it and came here. We decided that if this galaxy was to be our home, we wanted to be prepared in case we encountered any hostile force that could attack us. Now that we are reasonably sure those preparations are complete, we began to explore the nearby systems. It was pure luck we saw the ships over your planet when we did. We came here to help as quickly as we could arrange it, while still providing protection over the world we have claimed. We were actually very surprised to find out there were humans in this galaxy. I don't think we expected to see any of the races we once knew in our old galaxy."

Several of the elders tried to talk at the same time. Commander Tyr cut them off with a quick slam of his hand on the table in front of him. He then spoke to the elders. "Before we get off topic, we should finish with the options we have before us. History lessons can wait till after we take care of more immediate concerns." Turning back to Kaden. "I am sorry for the interruption, please do continue."

Kaden nodded to Tyr. "It's no trouble. I have no problem sharing some of the history of my people after we finish this conversation. The problem with both of the two options I have presented is that it leaves us with a massive defensive fleet stationed over either this planet or the planet your people choose to move to. It may take years for planetary defenses to be set up in either case. Having the fleet in orbit here makes them a prime target if the Wraith decide to retaliate. Positioning them over a different planet leaves the same target, while with a lower chance of being detected, still leaves the fleet at risk.

"That is why the governing council, including General Koth have decided to offer a third option. I can guarantee your safety as well as help with setting up everything you need for your people including food, houses, transportation, power, water, medical supplies, droids, and knowledge. It would be preferable in that defenses are already in place, and would allow us to assist you much easier. Instead of moving you to a uninhabited planet and beginning from nothing, we are willing to share our planet with you."

Dead silence answered Kaden as the translation droid finished. After a minute Kaden stood. "I know this decision is not easy for any of you. I know mine wasn't when I decided to leave my home forever, taking my family with me. My father questioned his decision for years before he sent me and his grandchildren away, never to see us again. Every one of the adults on our planet made that same decision concerning themselves and their children. All of us left people behind, be it family or friends. We made the conscious decision to take a chance to make a better future for our children and descendants. All we brought with us was knowledge of our past, and what we needed for our future. In that regard, you have an advantage. If you decide to leave this planet and move either to ours or to another, we will make sure you won't have to leave anyone behind. We will also help you recover your people's history, knowledge, possessions, art, valuables, and anything else we can so you do not lose your people's culture and identity. If you have any questions, I will be willing to answer them to the best of my knowledge."

* * *

Six hours of questions from Commander Tyr and the elders meant that it was after dark on Sateda when the discussion was over. Commander Tyr ended the long discussion by addressing Kaden. "Would you mind if I gave you our answer tomorrow? It is late and we have quite a bit to process before we can make such a choice."

Kaden agreed with a tired smile. "I would advise taking at least a day before you make a decision of this importance, maybe two. Talk to whoever you need to. Both myself and General Koth will be available for questions from you or any of the elders. For now though, I think we all need some food and sleep."

Tyr nodded. "I do not think sleep will be an option for me for a few ours at least. I need to check in on the search groups and get updates on any remaining survivors still unaccounted for. I need to thank Admiral Nera for keeping us updated on locations of survivors in and around the city."

"I will convey your thanks. We will see you in the morning." With a friendly wave of his hand, he headed to the mess hall with General Koth while the translation droid followed.

Commander Tyr returned to his seat, and glanced over to the elders, who also remained. "I want your views on this, good and bad. This will not turn into an argument or bar room brawl. I want your honest opinions on what you individually think of each option Kaden gave us. If you can think of any other options than what we already discussed, I want to hear them."

It was several minutes before one of the elders, the quiet gray-haired woman called Namil, spoke up. "If we stay here on Sateda, we are doomed. I don't like it one bit, but it is the truth. None of our government survived, and we have not yet determined what vocations the rest of the survivors had before. No matter what we do here, the Wraith will return, they always do. I think a piece of us will die by having to leave Sateda behind. Whether we like the options Kaden provided us or not, I do not see any alternatives that do not end in our peoples destruction. We have trading partners on many worlds, but none of them could take us all in. We would have to split up into many groups, and leave our heritage behind. Within a few decades, we would no longer be Satedan, we would simply be refugees. And there is no guarantee that the Wraith would not visit those worlds and cull us. We could move to another planet with no people already there, but we would be only a little safer than we are here. The only option where we have a chance to succeed is if we accept Kaden's offer and join his people."

One of the other elders spoke up. "As much as Namil and I hate each other, we agree on this. I think all of us do. We are in a bad position, and none of the choices is good. I used to have three children, eight grandchildren, and one great grandchild would have been born in two months. All I have left is one granddaughter. While some of us have surviving family, not everyone does. If we stay, we die. If we go anywhere but Kaden's planet, we will probably die. I want my granddaughter to live. She is all I have left. I want her to make it to my age, have children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. I don't want her to have to see all her descendants die before her. As I see it, there really is no choice. We take our people and join Kaden."

"I think we all agree on what choice should be made. But before we inform Kaden, I want to spend a day or two talking to some of the other survivors. I want to make sure we are making the correct choice for all of us." A third elder said. "And I want to make sure we have something to offer Kaden and his people. They do not have to help us, and they have asked nothing of us. They have fed us, provided us with clothes, shelters, medicine. They have risked themselves to give us a chance to live. Those of us who know people from other planets should help with teaching them about the people we know of from around the galaxy. We also need to teach them and help them when the fight against the Wraith. We should also teach them about the Ancestors, and items they left behind. We know the Ancestors left our galaxy thousands of years ago, maybe these people are their descendants."

The other elders nodded. Then Commander Tyr spoke. "It seems we all agree. We accept Kaden's offer to join his people. I want to think on this before we commit to a course of action. I suggest we meet again tomorrow at sundown and discuss this once more after we have had some time to think. It will take several more days to finish gathering the rest of our people. For the moment we are well fed, and our injured are being taken care of. I know we all need sleep. Most of us have been awake for two days, some longer. With everyone safe and content here for the time being, we can take a day before informing Kaden."

* * *

Kaden and General Koth chatted as they ate in the mess hall. Filled to a bit more than could be seated, they stood in a corner holding their trays with one hand as they ate. Kaden was the first to break the silence between them. "They wont stay. I think the loss of life and complete destruction of everything they knew hit them harder than they realize. I will need to send a message to Tonin on _Toy Maker_. We are going to need a couple passenger ships to move these people off planet. If the galaxy is in as bad a place as we are hearing it is, we may end up doing this on other planets as well."

Koth nodded and responded. "Question is do we want to turn our planet into the galactic refugee center. We have no idea of how many sentient beings exist in this galaxy. We don't know what levels of technology they have or would be comfortable with. So far we have encountered the Wraith, who seem to be definitely hostile to all others, and humans who cannot defend themselves."

"You have a point, one which I hadn't considered. We need to begin production of housing and worker droids if we are going to keep our promise of helping them rebuild. And I want to bring the freighter back with worker droids to begin salvaging the items the Satedans want to take with them. To be honest, I want to make sure nothing of them is left behind. Every bit of technology, art, knowledge, and history we can move with them will be coming. It would be better if none of their heritage was looted by others."

"Don't forget we need to build more schools, both for their children, and to help the adults learn our technology. If we don't, they will be very confused. They don't have droids, atmospheric flight, primitive weapons, and the list is quite long."

Kaden chuckled. "This is actually going to take more than I thought it would by far. Here is another one. How will they react to the hundreds of Twi'lek we have with us? I doubt they have seen or heard of that species before."

Koth grimaced. "Sithspawn. We are so used to not even noticing the difference anymore, I doubt anyone else on the council thought of it either. The introduction will be interesting, I just hope no one gets hurt.


	15. 14 Issues

Chapter Fourteen

Colony (Year 3, Day 47, 0400 hours)

Tonin Suros was exhausted. Twenty hours since Kaden had asked him about building a passenger/refugee ships to transport about ten thousand people to a new planet. Designing a new ship from scratch for this many people would take a week or more. So he had decided to go the easy route. Tapping into the main archive on Promise 3, he downloaded the information on a Mon Calamari ship, the _MC80_ luxury liner which later became the Mon Calamari _Star Cruiser_ during the Rebellion.

While he didn't have the complete plans to build one, he did have the published floor plans from several periodicals from before the rise of the Empire. Inputting those images into the _Toy Maker_ main computer allowed most of the work to be completed within an hour. That didn't mean the ship was ready to be built. Tonin still had to position engines, reactors, defenses, weapons, and more before the ship could be viable.

Quite a few other changes needed to be made as well. A refugee ship did not need a nine hundred seat theater, two casinos, two nightclubs, gym, bazaar, or the myriad of other entertainment areas. The luxury Royal Suite as well as almost eighty deluxe suites could also be reworked into normal staterooms. This added a significant number of refugees that could be carried over the original design. Of the original four hundred crew needed, most had been entertainers or security, leaving only about twenty crew actually needed. The standard compliment of five hundred droids could handle the remaining duties of maintenance and ship operation. Then there was the cargo hold, which normally held five thousand metric tons of cargo. Since they didn't need a years worth of consumables, it was reduced to five hundred metric tons to give enough room for the refugees to bring along personal items. All told, for a ship which normally held just under four thousand living crew and passengers, the new design could hold just over seven thousand, plus the twenty man crew.

While those changes were made to turn a luxury liner into a five hundred meter refugee ship, the remaining changes were relatively straight forward. Replacing the ten turbolaser batteries with ten quad laser cannons proved to be an easy exchange. More modern engines gave the ship faster sub-light and hyperspace speeds so it could keep up with an _ISD III_ if moving with the fleet. Improved shields worthy of a combat rated capital ship plus new alloys for the ship itself meant a much lighter and more durable craft that would have been the envy of the Rebellion of times past.

The last change was more a matter of logistics than comfort. Ferrying passengers and their belongings up one shuttle at a time would take a week at least before it could make the first trip. To resolve this, three major changes were made. First was the addition of the ability to enter a planet's atmosphere, which meant repulsor lift coils on the ventral side of the ship. Second was the addition of landing struts to allow the ship to set down on the surface of the planet. Third was the addition of passenger and cargo ramps to enter the ship. Seven ramps would extend from the lowest deck to allow passengers to board the ship. It would be tiring, however, it would take far less time than docking four shuttles at a time in the main hanger.

Once the design was finalized, he set the _Toy Maker_ to build two of the new design, dubbed the _PR80_. Tonin _was_ asleep before he could stand from his chair, which is where his wife found him three hours later.

* * *

Sateda (Year 3, Day 48, 1945 hours)

Kaden was sitting quietly in a chair near the ramp of his shuttle near sundown on his second day on Sateda. His comlink chirped indicating a message was waiting for him. Activating his link, he listened to the message and laughed. He stood and sought out General Koth, who was working with Commander Tyr in recovering the survivors. It didn't take him long to arrive at the command center where Tyr and Koth were discussing what to do with the few Satedans who refused assistance or didn't want to come near the main group of survivors.

The golden droid was finishing translating Tyr's words as Kaden came within hearing range. "...they still refuse. I really do not want to leave anyone behind if we decide to move to a different planet, but we cannot force them."

General Koth nodded. "I agree. You have tried, more than most would have. Your message to them concerning the future of your people was clear, as was the choices ahead of you. If they choose to not participate, then that is their decision. You cannot make it for them. They know they will not be protected should your people choose to leave. There is nothing more you can say to them that will change their minds. I will make sure several crates of food are left for them where they can find them. Unfortunately, any of our technology like our medical supplies cannot remain behind if your people choose to leave."

Kaden remained silent after entering, but approached the table where Koth and Tyr sat and took an empty chair for himself. He did not want to interrupt the current conversation. The translation droid switched seamlessly between languages as the conversation went back and forth. Tyr continued. "I will let the elders know. They already told me I was wasting my time sending half a dozen messengers to each of the groups. It looks like they are on their own. They were the last remaining groups we haven't recovered. Kaden, since you are here, I was going to let you know we made our decision. I was going to inform you tomorrow, but now is as good a time as any. We are accepting your offer to join you on your planet."

Kaden nodded sadly. "I hate to say it, however, it is the safest option available for your people under the circumstances. As much as we all would like to have other options, none were feasible. Now that we know the decision you and your people made, we need to arrange transport for everyone to our planet."

Commander Tyr spoke up. "It would be easy if your planet had a Ring of the Ancestors like we do. It allows us to trade with other worlds without the need for ships. We can just walk through."

Kaden looked confused. "Ring of the Ancestors? Is that the large upright ring not far from here?"

"Yes. If you know which planet you are going to, you can use the buttons on the pedestal to open a door to the Ring on the other planet."

General Koth chuckled. "We do have one on our planet, about ninety kilometers from our settlement. Unfortunately, it does not appear to be working. We have spent the last two years trying to figure out how it works in order to repair it. There were a few ideas as to its purpose, but we were not even sure what it really does until now."

Commander Tyr responded. "I do not think we could help with repairing it. It is beyond our knowledge. According to our history, thousands of years ago a race we call the Ancestors left, and the rings were one way they used to travel between worlds. No one knows how old they really are, only that they work."

Kaden interjected. "It really doesn't matter. In a little over a week, two ships will be landing with enough room to carry the survivors."

General Koth queried. "Two ships? I didn't know we had anything with enough space for this many people."

Kaden laughed. "Just before I came in, I received a message from _Toy Maker_. Kendra said the two ships would be ready for launch within seven days, but needed a crew of twenty each to make sure they worked correctly before heading this way."

Koth asked a question. "How did he get a design completed this soon? I know he is good, but this puts him in the miracle category."

"It is based on another ship. By downloading the images from our historical archive, it gave him a head start. He redesigned the old MC80 luxury liner. It now can carry over seven thousand people on each trip. And he started two on the shipyard before he passed out." Kaden smiled as he finished. Then he looked over to Commander Tyr.

To say he was shocked would have been accurate. Commander Tyr stared at him as the translation droid finished. "You mean you can build ships that fast? Ships that can hold that many people?"

"Yes. We do have the ability. When we get your people to safety, I will give you and some others a tour of what we have built since we arrived in this galaxy. That reminds me, there are a few other matters that need to be discussed before the two ships arrive."

"What do you have in mind?" Tyr responded.

"First would be to organize the boarding of the ships before they get here. This would make loading much easier. The cabins on the ships have room for four adults at one bed each. Smaller children could be two to a bed. We don't anticipate anyone being on board the ships much longer than a day. There will be a mess hall on each level so everyone will be able to eat when they want. We are also stocking each room with extra clothing in multiple sizes so they have something clean to wear. The big part is making sure we have everyone assigned a room before the ships arrive so we can make this as painless as possible."

"I think I can understand that. It will take a few days, so we should start on it as soon as possible." Commander Tyr agreed.

"Second, we need a census of all of your people. We need to know how many houses and how many rooms they need based on family size. I would like to keep family members together as much as possible. For those adults who have no family left, we will be building apartment complexes, the same type some of us used when we first came here. If we can get these two problems sorted out before the two ships get here, that will solve most of our problems."

"I think we can handle both of those at the same time. We just need to know how the rooms are designated, and have droids in the hallways to direct each group to their rooms. We should also add finding out what skills each adult has to make sure they get the training on how to use our equipment once we get settled." General Koth added in.

"I will get this part started in the morning. Most of us are tired, and catching up on rest. I don't want to disturb them if I can help it." Tyr commented.

"Agreed." Kaden said. "The third issue is government. Currently we have a council of five. Myself, General Koth, Admiral Nera, and two others you will meet later. I would like to add two of your people to the council if possible. It would give your people a say in the government, and help include your ideas and knowledge in how we handle things."

"Namil, one of the elders in the meeting yesterday, would be a good choice. I have known her for years, and she is a reasonable person. Also she is one of the few people who sleeps less than I do. She acts like age hasn't slowed her down, and I have seen her back down an angry mob by herself. Not sure who we would want for the other seat. We may have to hold a vote once we get settled down to decide who will join the council."

"That sounds like a good idea. That brings up problem number four, education. We need to learn your language, and you should learn ours. I will be making learning your language mandatory for our people, children and adults alike. This will remove the need for translation droids everywhere. It will also make it easier for our people to interact. We also have technology your people would not understand and would be unable to use. For now, it would seem like your people, except those too young, would need to go to school to learn about our technology." Kaden continued.

"I see the necessity of it, but I doubt everyone else will for a while. As long as it is voluntary, I think most would agree to it. The elders and I will encourage it."

"Fifth issue is personal possessions. I know many of you have items you want to recover if possible. If you could see that we get locations of each person's residence, we can have worker droids recover anything salvageable and load them into crates for transport to their new homes. Tomorrow at dawn, the freighter that was here before unloading supplies will be returning with five thousand worker droids. I want to send them out to the public buildings for now, recovering all they can of your people's knowledge and culture. They will be sealed into crates, and kept that way until your people are settled and ready to go through everything. All of it belongs to your people, and it will be up to you what will be done with it. Once we have a map of people's residences, the droids will be able to go to each location to salvage anything they can for each family. As for the residences that no one remains alive from, I want your input as to what you want done with their possessions."

"Taking items from the dead is not something we do. It is one thing to pick up a weapon dropped by a fallen comrade, quite another to loot the houses of the dead. Can you prevent the items from ever being taken?" Tyr asked.

General Koth answered this time. "I know we can. Once we have recovered everything from the public buildings and archives, as well as the personal possessions of the survivors, we can melt the area to prevent anyone from recovering anything that is left behind. All that will be left here will be melted rock. We may want to warn the two groups who refuse to leave before we do that though. They will want to be far away before the orbital bombardment. This small of an area shouldn't cause any environmental damage, and the dust would settle in a few days at most."

"I hate to see the city disappear, but better that no one recovers what remains, or knows what happened." Tyr replied sadly.

"Now for the last issue. I understand that other than the Wraith, ever other planet you have contact with is populated with humans only?" Kaden asked.

"We did not know any other races existed. Since the Ancestors left thousands of years ago, it has been humans and the Wraith. Why do you ask?" Tyr inquired.

"When we left our old galaxy, we did not consist of only humans. Currently we have almost a thousand non-humans on our planet. They are just under a third of our current population. Three of them are on the freighter that will be here in the morning. They will be coordinating the worker droids in recovering everything they can from the public buildings. I would like to prevent any violence or accidents from occurring when they land. Any ideas on how to accomplish that?" Kaden grimaced as he finished speaking.

* * *

New ship

 **PR80 Passenger/Refugee ship** (based on _MC80_ Luxury Liner hull)

500 meters long, 225 meters wide, 90 meters high

Crew 20 humanoids and 500 droids

10 quad laser cannons

7150 passengers

4 Lambda shuttles

500 metric tons cargo


	16. 15 Farewell

Chapter Fifteen

 **Sateda** (Year 3, Day 49, 0625 hours)

At dawn the next morning, the freighter entered the atmosphere and within a few minutes had set down on the opposite side of the empty field from the survivor's camp. As the engines powered down, a ramp lowered from the side of the crew compartment of the freighter. Ten humanoids, five of them carrying rather bulky cases, and ten translation droids disembarked the freighter and were met by Commander Tyr and the six elders from the first meeting with Kaden. General Koth and Kaden Hylar were off to the side as the greeting took place. It had been decided the night before that having those currently seen as in charge among the Satedans to greet the new arrivals, including the three non-humans, it would alleviate most of the fear at dealing with a new species.

As the greeting took place, onlookers from among the survivors watched in shock, fear, awe, and curiosity at the three strange looking people. Definitely not Wraith, it was still something they had no experiences to compare it to. To everyone, for as long as they had been alive and centuries before, it had been "Humans are good, non-humans are bad". This would be a difficult concept to overcome for many. Commander Tyr hoped by having the elders with him to greet the Twi'lek, as he had been told they were named as a species, it would prevent any violence that may be directed against them. It would be very bad indeed if they lost their only chance to survive as a people because of fear of something or someone new.

Tyr and the elders thanked them for coming to assist their people, and hoped that the recover efforts would proceed quickly. Tyr may have been the de facto leader of the Satedans, but he was no fan of politics and diplomacy. It was one of the reasons he had joined the military in the first place. He would rather just find the enemy and shoot them. That was the main reason he planned on having a vote among the Satedans, to get others placed in charge so he could go back to being out of the spotlight.

The greeting was fairly short, and the new arrivals and their translation droids followed Tyr to the command bunker so they could find out where the public buildings in the city were. Each of the ten would be working twelve hour shifts, with five working and five off until the salvage operation was complete. While on duty, they would control a thousand worker droids remotely, directing them to their target areas by portable holotable. They already had very detailed scans of the ruined city from the orbiting fleet, which made directing that many droids much simpler. They sat through a quick briefing on what areas would be excavated first, then the five who were to be off duty left the command center and went to Kaden's shuttle to rest. The Satedans in the command center watched in awe as the five remaining people opened their cases and three dimensional holographic images of different parts of the city appeared over each. Verifying with the paper map of the city on the table in front of Commander Tyr, they began dispatching a veritable army of droids from the cargo holds of the freighter.

Droids marched like soldiers in groups of ten to several groups of a hundred, spreading out once the left the freighter, as they headed into the ruined city. As the Satedans watched the groups near the edge of the survivor camp, some droids began clearing paths down the streets to make room for other droids to reach their target areas. Other droids began clearing away rubble from collapsed buildings along the edge of the field, carrying rubble to an empty location before returning for more waste. As items were uncovered in what used to be a library and school, the last hundred or so droids brought empty crates from the freighter and began loading the artifacts for transport.

Moving the debris also brought the destruction of the city into depressing clarity. Boulders being removed also revealed the bodies of people who had died during the attack by the Wraith. While the Wraith did prefer live prisoners, a collapsing structure was not as forgiving to those left inside. The Satedans observed in horror as the bodies of the dead became visible. Most had given little thought to those who had been lost, it was too painful to deal with being so soon after such devastation.

The elders stood in front of the Satedans as the droids worked to clear the rubble of the school, carefully bringing out the remains of few adults, and many children. Namil faced the multitude of her people and spoke. "We know they are gone. Their spirits have joined the Ancestors, and we will see them again one day. The choice we face now is either we grieve and move on, or we give up and let their deaths drive us to our own demise. The elders have talked with Kaden Hylar about how to deal with our dead, and none will be mistreated. Kaden's people do not bury their dead, and he explained the reasons why. His people are cremated in a funeral pyre, and I think we should do the same. There will be no one left here to tend to their graves once we leave, and I do not think we should begin life on a new planet by creating massive graveyards. So we elders ask you if you wish to have a ceremony for the dead, where we burn their bodies so they will always be a part of Sateda, and no one can desecrate their remains. Over the next few days, the remaining members of our military will be meeting with each family. Let them know your decision when they do. Please return to your shelters, and give the droids time to do their jobs. I am going to mine to say a prayer to the Ancestors that the spirits of my daughter and grandson are safe now with them."

As she turned toward her shelter, only a few dozen yards away, she collapsed in tears after taking only one step. The other five elders assisted her to her feet then helped her the rest of the way. Kaden bowed his head as the first bodies were carried to the medical building. Very little could really be done, and most of the bodies would likely be unnamed considering ninety five percent of the planet's population was gone. The elders had decided the night before that the dead would be either burned or buried in whatever condition they were in. Another decision concerning where to search for the dead was that only the homes of the survivors would be checked, all other homes would be left in peace.

Slowly, the Satedans returned to their shelters, and very few remained outdoors. Kaden slowly walked back to the command center. He would not intrude on the Satedan's time of mourning. He did not want to disrespect their beliefs and traditions. Any words he could offer would fall far short of what was needed. Instead, he went to where he could be of help. Since he was an engineer, he could relieve the droid controllers one at a time so they could take a break and get some food. The recovery operation would likely need more people or the current staff would burn out.

* * *

Over the course of the day, conversations were few, other than work related discussions in the command center. The somber mood seemed to have affected nearly everyone. Even Commander Tyr was impacted, though he tried not to show it. He had been outside for over an hour earlier, and seen the remains of the school as the last few bodies were removed. He stood motionless for what seemed an eternity, before bowing his head in silent prayer, then returning to work. Gone was the idle chat, as he focused on coordinating the recovery locations with the surviving families as the first reports from the census takers returned.

Loaded crates began filling the first of the cargo bays on the freighter, as more empty crates were removed. Physical items had survived intact in some places, documents, newspapers, books, art, and many other items were salvaged. There were also dozens of crates being loaded with Satedan weapons and armor, all taken from caches and not from the dead. Even more crates filled with furniture, electronics, and tools. Anything that could be salvaged from public places was being crated up and loaded into the freighter.

Near dusk, the first crates of personal belongings from the survivor's homes began to arrive, each crate marked with a the name of the eldest survivor of each family. It was a never ending stream of droids carrying loaded crates one direction, and empty ones back the other. The other observation was the number of bodies was decreasing as they went further out into the city. This procession continued on through the night, a continuous march.

The remainder of the days on Sateda proceeded in similar fashion. While the depressed mood of the people remained, they were slowly recovering. Room assignments for the incoming ships as well as new residence requirements on Promise 3 were already complete. Most of the personal possessions of the survivors had been recovered, but activity would not be complete for several days after the Satedans had departed.

Massive funeral pyres had been constructed in a nearby field by a thousand droids. The current count of the recovered dead was nearing twenty thousand. At dawn the day before the _PR80_ s were to arrive, the pyres were lit, consuming the dead over the course of the next few hours. The heat emanating from the conflagration was able to be felt several kilometers away. Many of those present gave prayers to the Ancestors that their dead would find peace. It was two hours before the first Satedan turned to begin walking back to the camp. The few remaining kept watch till the flames died out late that night.

As people returned to camp, it was as if a heavy blanket had been lifted. No one was laughing, however, the depression seemed far less than it had been the day before. Even when a few bodies tricked into the medical building from the farther edges of the city, it did not have the same degree of hopelessness carried with them.

* * *

 **Sateda** (Year 3, Day 55, 0615 hours)

The final dawn broke over the Satedan camp, punctuated with the sound of massive engines as the first _PR80_ approached to land. It was a sleek looking ship, appearing almost organic in nature, yet obviously not Wraith. Within minutes of making landfall, the Satedans began climbing the ramps, being met inside by droids that directed them to their temporary rooms. The procession up the ramps continued for over four hours until the last passengers for the first ship had boarded.

While this was ongoing, some worker droids were taking down the now unused shelters and loading them into the freighter. Commander Tyr was amazed at how fast deconstruction of the temporary camp was occurring. Muttering to himself, he directed a comment at the elders. "I guess Kaden wasn't kidding about leaving nothing behind."

Namil was the one to respond. "He seems like a good man, one we can trust to keep his word. He has offered us and you a place on his... shuttle, I believe he called it. He wanted to give us the opportunity to see how he plans to prevent the ruins of our city and the remains of our dead from being desecrated by any who come here after we are gone."

Commander Tyr nodded in agreement. "I think it would be best, in case someone asks later, so we can say we know our heritage will not be stolen. By the way, I arranged a quiet vote last night among the survivors. Out of all of the elders we have remaining, yourself and Ferol are the two they would see on the council."

Ferol's voice was heard instantly. "WHAT? Why am I being punished? Making me work with Namil will be torture!"

Commander Tyr chuckled. "Both of you are wiser than I am by far. They chose you because since the attack you two have been the main voices of reason and hope. You two may not like each other, but you have put those opinions aside to make sure our people are provided for. They want you two because together you will make sure no one is ignored."

Namil nodded. "I accept. If our people can survive the loss of our home, I can survive Ferol."

Several of the other elders laughed before Tyr spoke again. "You two may not like each other, but you have quite a bit in common. The biggest difference is that Ferol is louder. The people trust the two of you to do what is necessary. Ferol, do you accept as well?"

The elderly man remained silent for a moment before nodding. "I'll do it."

* * *

 **Sateda** (Year 3, Day 63, 1145 hours)

A week after the departure of nearly all of the survivors, an empty city was visible out of the front view port of the Lambda shuttle. It was a bit cramped in the cockpit as the seven Satedans observed what was to come. The freighter had left only a few minutes ago, leaving nothing of use behind in the destroyed urban ruins. Admiral Nera's report that no human life was within ten kilometers of the ruins was a relief to some, considering there were two small groups of Satedans that refused any help. They were located nearly twenty kilometers outside the city in a series of caves.

As the shuttle hovered fifteen kilometers outside the city, the passengers observed the first of many ruby streaks of light fly down from the clouds to impact inside the city. Equal parts awe, fear, and sadness were evident as the combined firepower of twenty Ingot IIs sent forth millions of terajoules of energy. Stone, steel, and earth deformed due to heat as a dust cloud began to form.

Within ten minutes, the rain of scarlet destruction ended. As the winds blew the cloud of particulates away, the once beautiful city was visible again. The center of the city, where the Ring of the Ancestors stood remained untouched, as well as the large field around it. Beyond the field was a barren landscape still glowing read in places. No evidence of any buildings was visible on the rough melted stone that remained. All proof that the Satedans had existed at all had been erased from the planet.

The silence was broken by Ferol. "We should go. There is nothing more we can do here."

* * *

 **Unknown Planet** (Year 3, Day 71, 0130 hours)

On a planet in a different part of the galaxy, a well fed red haired man in a military style uniform was reading reports at his desk, the latest set of information from the spies his people had scattered throughout the galaxy on many inhabited worlds. Several spies had not reported in at their scheduled times. While not uncommon for a spy to be late reporting in, having more than one not report from the same planet was cause for concern. All contact with his agents on Sateda had been silent for several weeks, which only left a very few possibilities. Either the Wraith had culled them completely or his spies had been caught. The only way to know for sure was to send someone to Sateda. Information was needed before that could happen. He would have his spies among the Satedan trading partners gather what they could first.


	17. 16 Setback

Chapter Sixteen

Colony (Year 5, Day 6, 0900 hours)

The council was in session, going over the monthly status reports from the various governmental departments. The first to speak this morning was General Koth.

"Currently, we have 100 _Wampa_ assault landers, fifty thousand combat droids, and five thousand each of the automated turret types. The new combined turret type, which some have taken to calling _Plinth_ , are completed and ready for use if we need them. Between the inventory stored on the fleet as well as currently deployed as ground defenses here, we should have no problems with any hostile ground force. The planetary and theater shields are fully functional as of the most recent surprise tests. Also, the two moon factories now have planetary shields as well as theater shields operational as well. Adequate defensive weapons have been deployed to both locations in addition to the ion cannons here on the ground. We now have twenty V-90 ion cannons able to hit ships in low or near orbits, and five of the V-150 ion cannons, so any enemy ships inside the lunar orbits would be in range. At this point, I cannot think of any further ground defenses that would be of any help."

Kaden nodded. "What about offensive forces, how much can be fielded at a moment's notice in case we are needed to respond to another attack like what happened two years ago?"

"I have both good and bad news on that front. The good news is we can deploy up to ten thousand combat droids via _Wampa_ s. The bad news is the _Plinths_ are proving a problem for Tonin on _Toy Maker_. He is building a ship from scratch to carry and deploy them. Currently, we would have to use tractor beams to aim and drop them, which takes quite a bit of time. Tonin promised a workable prototype drop ship for them by the end of the month." General Koth responded.

"Even after two years of living here, I am amazed at how advanced the technology is." Namil commented.

"And to think we were less than three thousand when we first landed here five years ago." Admiral Nera added. "I believe my report is next. I have the latest reports from the recon droids sent out, as well as a fleet status update. Fleet status is as follows: Four _ISD III_ command ships, Forty _Nova_ -D carriers, two hundred forty each of the _Ingot II_ cruisers and _Lancer_ frigates, the two operational _Sentinel_ stations, providing facilities for the sixteen thousand Tie-D fighters and four thousand Tie-DB bombers in orbit. We currently have a full compliment of fighters and bombers on the fleet as well. We have no more room for fighters unless we build a third _Sentinel_ station or more carriers. The fleet can field eight thousand six hundred forty snub-fighters if completely deployed. There are now eight thousand _Tombstone_ satellites providing additional defenses around Promise 3 as well as both moons and _Toy Maker_. Even Vader's Death Squadron wouldn't make it past what we have without at least ten sector fleets in support. Our offensive capability is three times what it was two years ago, however, unless absolutely necessary, I would not send out that many ships at a single planet. The best use would be to split the fleet in four parts, with each one being it's own fleet. Three as offense and one as defense for normal operations. Realistically, the fleet does not add much to the planetary defense. Between the ground based weapons, fighters, bombers, _Sentinels_ , and _Tombstones_ , the planet is safer than Coruscant during the height of the Empire."

"The defenses are that strong? I hope we never meet anyone who can beat them." Dera Kirik spoke. "What about the civilian fleet?"

"Yes, they are that strong. I hope we never meet anyone that strong either. As for the civilian fleet, they have been mostly idle, all ships are fully operational. The ships currently busy are the refinery ships and gas harvesters, ten each. They are devoted to providing needed resources to the ground factories since _Toy Maker_ no longer needs them. We have the two _PR80s_ currently on the ground in case they are needed. Of the sixteen freighters, three are standing by in lunar orbit with relief supplies in case they are needed. The remainder are idle, waiting to be used. If we can find a planet we can trade with, they would be useful, however, since no one other than the Wraith seems to have ships, it may be more trouble than it is worth to attempt contact. To keep them busy, the five salvage ships have been working on clearing the orbiting debris from the battle two years ago over Sateda. Some of the techs are complaining they do not have enough Wraith tech to study. I give it three months, and there will be no debris left. Anything not being used by the techs is being sent to _Toy Maker_ for raw materials. There are also over a thousand _Lambda_ shuttles in service, between the fleet and here planetside."

"Doing better than I thought for the non-military ships. As long as they are available for use if needed, we should have enough. What about the recon droid reports?" Feth Tevos queried.

Admiral Nera sighed. "This is where it gets complicated. With nearly forty thousand recon droids in operation, we are having trouble keeping up with the data flowing in. The fleet of thirty _AutEx_ exploration ships is currently grounded for the same reason. Our current systems cannot handle the sheer amount of information. Right now we have two warehouses full of recon droids waiting to upload their findings. More are on the ground than currently on missions. We need to build a much larger and more powerful data center to handle this or we will be decades or centuries behind. We have plenty of droids, we just need a much better system in place. If we put all the currently idle worker droids to the project, plus one of the three ground factories, we are looking at a year till it is complete. It would be best if Feth took charge of that project, since he is light years ahead of me when it comes to computer systems."

"I agree." Feth commented. "I was going to mention this as the computer issues are affecting much more than the recon droids. I have several engineers and slicers working on designing a new data center. The specifications for the data center are high, like Obra-skai or Bothawuii caliber on the requirements. We can make it, but it is too massive to fit anywhere inside the current borders of the city. The size of the facility would need to be two or three cubic kilometers, so unless we plan on emulating Coruscant, it would need to go underground. We have several possible locations inside the city shield zone, but we would need to start soon if we want to get it done this year."

"Come by my house later, I know what type of equipment we would need to make a space that large. For now though, I call for a vote on halting all recon droids and storing them until the new data center is ready. No further reports will be uploaded until it is complete. Who votes in favor?" Kaden asked. A chorus of agreement was his reply. "And the vote to build a new data center? All in favor?" More sounds of ascent were heard.

Feth continued his report. "Before the computer system slowed down too far, we did have some progress on the Wraith tech we recovered. Their faster than light travel is much slower than ours, but in some ways safer. They open a window to a different region of space that allows them to travel to their destination without need to avoid gravitational wells or physical objects. I wouldn't recommend using their version, but we are working on a way to counter it and prevent them from escaping if they try to retreat. Also, their ship based weapons are not very powerful, but effective against energy shields and most electronics. In that way they are very similar to our Ion Cannons. The main differences being the bolt fired is larger and moves quite a bit slower. While each weapon has a slower rate of fire than our own, the way they have them set up would allow them to maintain a constant rate of fire of two shots per second for a long time. From what we can tell, their hand held weapons operate on a nearly identical basis. The effect would be to overload the nervous system of anyone struck. They seem to be immune to the effects themselves, and it seems their nervous system is much better able to handle the effects to the point it may not cause any problems for them. Hopefully by next month's meeting I will have an update on their power generation capabilities as well as their sub-light engines."

"Thank you Feth." Kaden replied. "I believe you are next Namil."

"I have little to report. While I do appreciate you placing the educational side of things on my shoulders, it is rather boring. Currently we have twenty seven hundred children attending school. Both of our histories are being taught, as well as both of our languages. When it comes to learning new things the young have the advantage. As for the adults, we have almost six thousand adults who have completed most of the technical classes, and pretty much all of us are still attending the language classes. It will likely take a few more years before we are done with sharing of knowledge on these areas."

"It is nice not seeing thousands of translation droids everywhere. Most of them are in storage in case we need them again. Now that most of us know the main language of humans in this galaxy, we will only need them if we run across a new race that has their own language." Dera added. "On my side of things, we are sitting pretty well supplied. As of this morning, just over fifty thousand worker droids in service, between maintenance, a little bit of construction, and farming, we have just over half available for any major projects. When it comes to food, we currently have a surplus of four years based on current population and projected increases. The only issue with the food is the variety isn't great. In the five years we have been here, we have been unable to locate any native wildlife that would do well as livestock. I hate to say it, but this planet has a limited range of animal life with most being unusable as food. The exception is aquatic life. We found four species that would be usable once we set up aquaculture farms. As for the factories, they are splitting the current production demands, but there really only is enough for one factory to run at full capacity. Now would be a good time to begin any major production tasks we need, like the data center."

Kaden nodded. "Then would everyone mind a quick vote tomorrow morning on the data center once we determine what is needed to build it?"

Murmurs of ascent were heard before Ferol spoke. "When it comes to the general public, so far there is nothing major to report. In the last month, we have had one fight. A pilot got a bit drunk, and attacked a structural support column in one of the warehouses. He said the object insulted his flying ability." That comment was greeted with a round of chuckles. "We took a survey on what name to call this planet. Promise 3 is not really a name. Out of the suggestions available the most popular name was 'Praesidium' which is in the language of the Ancestors. It means 'strong place'."

Kaden replied. "That makes sense. This is a new galaxy for some of us, and we did not want to bring old names with us. An objections to naming our planet ' Praesidium'?" Silence was his answer. "Then I believe we can announce the name at the Anniversary celebration in three days time. If there is nothing else on the agenda for today, I say we adjourn. Feth, please stop by my home after lunch. We can get planning for the data center started."

* * *

Several hours later, Kaden and Feth sat in the study at Kaden's house examining the holoimage of the city and surrounding area. The image cycled between topographical, geological, thermal, and a image of the current land use. Both men were discussing possible locations as well as any drawbacks each location would have.

Kaden pointed to one part of the cycling image. "Here I think would be best. No faults, volcanic activity, or raw materials we could need later. The mountain range itself is not stable enough for such a large cavern, and would either collapse or need so much reinforcement it would be easier to build our own mountain. Whereas this location has what we need. The bedrock is five kilometers down, so we can make deeper cavern that we currently need. If we create a void here, it will not cause the surrounding land to collapse."

"That sounds good to me. How large of a cavern are we looking at here?" Feth inquired.

"I would rather not make it too large. We can keep that area undeveloped around the data center. With the spaceport to the south, having the data center to the north means we will have keep development between them until it passes this point. By that time, we would need a population of just over a hundred thousand, and I don't see that happening in my lifetime. But back to your question. I am thinking of going down to the bedrock itself, it would give it a much more stable foundation. So five thousand meters by two thousand meters square. That should give you enough space for what is needed with plenty of room to expand before the cavern would have to be enlarged."

Feth nodded. "I believe that would be plenty of room for the data center. It will need its own power generation, I do not want it taking power away from the defensive shields and weapons."

"Agreed. Once the main cavern is complete, while the data center is being built inside, we can set up redundant power systems for it. I would rather not lose all our data if it can be helped. I believe the main cavern would be ready within three months. The power systems two months later. How long would you need to have it running?"

Feth thought a moment. "Designing it from scratch... build times... Maybe eight months for it to be physically done, and two or three months for the slicers to create and install software. Some of that part can be done before the data center is finished, so likely nine or ten months from today. That is a rough estimate, and may not be that accurate. I will not know for sure until we have the system itself designed and production of parts begins."

"Understood. In that case, I will have the droids cordon off an area for the entire complex, including reactor sites. Once the actual assembly is complete, I want to put an armored and shielded dome over it to prevent any issues should we run into problems. You better get started on designing it with your people, while I get started putting the droids to work on excavation of the site. I would like to get the caverns done and covered before the rainy season comes. We don't need a twenty cubic kilometer reservoir."

"Thank you for the help. I will let you know when the data center design is ready for production." Feth nodded before departing.


	18. 17 Atlantis

A/N: This is when the SGA series starts. Bit of a change from the previous version of the story. Please keep in mind that changes will happen from the series, some good, some bad.

Chapter Seventeen

 **Praesidium** (Year 6, Day 4, 945 hours)

"Good news is what I have for you." Feth Te'vos "The new 'Lochus Acies' is up and running. Not sure about the name, but the Satedans are calling it that. They said it was in the language of the Ancestors, and figured Kaden figured it was appropriate as a name. It means Location of Insight, I think. Before I forget, as of this morning, the old data center has been decommissioned once verification of the data being transferred correctly was complete. In a few hours the recon droids and _AutEx_ ships should be able to upload their data as well."

"Thank the Force." Admiral Nera sighed. "At the previous rate of exploration, and an estimated three billion stars, it would have taken nearly twenty thousand years to recon the galaxy. We are already looking at seventy five thousand trips per recon droid to cover every star. We need more recon droids. How many do you think we can handle in operation with the new data center?"

"I am pretty sure we could have a million of them running around and not slow the new system down much. Want me to talk to Kaden and Dera about building more? And how many would you want built?" Feth asked.

"Even with a million recon probes, we are looking at a little over a century to just map out the stars and gravity wells, if my math is right. We are looking at two week average per round trip on the probes. Only way we could cut it down would be to start deploying a galaxy wide holonet to relay the data and drop travel times down as much as possible."

Feth didn't respond for a moment as he thought. "While the current droids do have holonet capability, and we have the plans for the old network, we have no way to deploy it currently. I wonder if we can get Tonin to build a ship that could begin deploying the holonet relays in deep space. We would only need a few dozen relays in each sector. With eighty sectors, and say forty relays per sector, that would be thirty two hundred relays. I think we should make it thirty five hundred to be safe."

"That many relays would take a massive amount of space. Maybe split it up with several deployment ships?" Admiral Nera queried.

"I won't know till I ask him." Feth replied. "May have to wait to ask him though, since we will need to redesign the relays first. I want to upgrade them with current technology. Most of the relays in our old galaxy were centuries or millennia old. They were massive ground complexes or delicate satellites that needed constant repair. I want to see if we can improve on it. Give me a few weeks to come up with something before we bring this up at the next council meeting."

* * *

 **Elsewhere in the galaxy** (Year 6, Day 4, 2100 hours)

Deep in an underwater city, a Ring of the Ancestors came to life for the first time in ten thousand years. Humans exited the ring, either carrying or dragging equipment bags and crates with them. Quickly they spread out with many leaving the room they had entered. As they moved about, the city began drawing more energy from its failing power source. Unaware of the damage they would cause, they spread further from the center of the city, causing the city to drain more power than it could afford. Oblivious to the effects their actions brought about, for a while they remained ignorant of the doom that was rapidly approaching.

* * *

 **Praesidium** (Year 6, Day 4, 2100 hours)

Kaden and Feth talked quietly in Kaden's study. With his wife and children already asleep for the night, Kaden attempted to not disturb them. "So, what brings you over here this late?"

Feth kept his voice down when he replied. "After we transferred the data from the old data center, I had the new system perform a second analysis of all of the previous recon droid and _AutEx_ reports we had collected so far. We have surveys of just over two hundred thousand star systems. Of those, about a quarter have orbiting bodies, be it planets or asteroid belts. Of the eleven hundred systems with habitable planets, only about ten percent have human life. So far it is small groups of humans, with populations under two thousand. None show any technology beyond spears and bows. The problem is the non-human life found on some of the other planets planets. A little under fifty of the planets showed non-human life. One of the techs at the data center was working on cross-referencing the minerals each planet had when he flagged me down. These planets also have very small areas with high concentrations of the same alloys and materials the Wraith ships are made of."

Kaden sat back in his chair as he thought. "Damn." He said softly. "So what are we looking at?"

"Well, most of the locations we enhanced from the original images show objects the same size and shape as the four Wraith ships we have encountered. There are a few about forty percent larger, but with similar shape. I believe these are ships as well. All of the ones found in the surveys were buried underground by at least twenty meters of soil over them. One of the planets had something else we cannot identify. Look here at the data pad." Feth finished.

Kaden observed the image shown on the data pad Feth held out to him. The underground object was much larger the ships Feth had described. Taking the data pad, he cycled through the various images of what appeared to be a massive underground structure. "This looks like a rather extensive underground complex. Fifteen kilometers long, three kilometers wide, and about three hundred meters high. Similar dimensions as an _Super_ Star Destroyer, but I doubt that it serves the same purpose. It may be a military base of some kind, yet there are no defenses. It could also be an empty storage facility for all we know. Without more detailed scans, we cannot tell what it is. While we can see the general shape of it, we cannot tell how much of the space is hollow and being used."

"That is the second reason I wanted to speak with you. I want to send at least one _AutEx_ to this location to get as detailed of a scan as we can. If they have some kind of super-weapon, we need to know before they use it against us or someone else." Feth responded.

Kaden nodded in agreement. "Do it. We need the scans. Keep cross-referencing the scans as the reports come in from the recon probes and _AutEx_ ships. It would be helpful if we could get a census on how many Wraith ships are out there. While you are working on that, see if you can find any ruins or advanced alloys and power sources not used by the Wraith. It is possible that the Ancestors the Satedans talk about left things behind as well. If they were as advanced as they sound to be, there may be items or technology we can use."

Feth stood as he spoke. "I will look into it tomorrow. We both need sleep. I am going to forward the information I showed you to Admiral Nera before I am done tonight though. I want to make sure she knows what is going on since she is our first line of defense."

* * *

 **Atlantis** (Year 6, Day 5, 0900 hours)

With the city now on the surface, four members of the expedition head through the gate in a small gray ship. They are attempting to rescue several captured members of their group as well as some civilians that were also taken from the people of the planet the expedition had been visiting. Chances of a successful rescue of all personnel were slim, but the attempt had to be made. It was understood among the military minded of the expedition that no one gets left behind. While the civilian leader of the expedition was afraid to risk four additional lives on what was likely a fool's errand, she could not countermand the tradition or necessity of such an action. If she did so, it would destroy any hope of keeping the respect she had gained thus far, and undermine her authority as expedition leader. The loss of either respect or authority would doom the expedition to an ill fate.

* * *

 **Habitable planet with possible buried Wraith ship** (Year 6, Day 5, 0950 hours)

 _AutEx_ 14 flew in low orbit over the lone planet in the system. The five droids controlling the ship used most of their processing power pulling data from the myriad of high powered scanning equipment filling most of the ship. Sixteen more hours were needed to finish the complete scans of the planet, with high resolution scans down to a depth of ten kilometers. Special attention was being paid to the location the possible Wraith ship had been seen by the recon droid over a year earlier. As the data was being recorded, the sensors also began picking up a large power surge from the same location.

Diverting the ship's course, the droids maneuvered the ship closer to the source of the energy emissions. As per programmed responses, the _AutEx_ 's shields were raised, and speed was increased to fifty percent of max power. Moving to high orbit over the suspected Wraith ship, all sensors and scanners were aimed at the site when the Wraith ship began to lift itself out of the ground and break orbit. Upon leaving the planet's atmosphere, the Wraith ship began turning toward _AutEx_ 14 and began firing it's main weapons.

As it was unarmed, if attacked, the _AutEx_ class ships were ordered to evade all hostile forces then jump to hyperspace to an uninhabited star. Once there, they were to verify no pursuit before jumping twice more following the same procedure. Once it was verified three hyperspace jumps with no enemy forces detected, the ship was to return to base. With five astromech droids, each able to pilot a ship this size or a fighter on their own, the _AutEx_ class ships were likely the best ships in existence for escape and evasion tactics.

With a series of rolls, dives, and sharp turns the droid piloted ship sped away from the Wraith ship, which was now facing the wrong way. As the Wraith began turning their ship to follow, it began to deploy fighters, but it was far too late. Before the Wraith fighters could get within firing range of _AutEx_ 14, it jumped into hyperspace with a streak of pseudo-motion.

* * *

 **Atlantis** (Year 6, Day 5, 1130 hours)

In a small room with a round table surrounded by chairs, several people were discussing the rescue mission. It had gone better than anticipated, and almost everyone had been recovered. A lone death was the final count. The man who had died was from the planet that the expedition had evacuated after the Wraith had attacked it.

A middle aged man spoke. "I think she fed on me, then reversed it, and no I don't know how. It felt like I was dying, like I would expect to be on my deathbed if I lived to be a hundred. She did that several times while asking about the destruction of some of her ships. She kept wanting to know how we were able to destroy three of them when they were raiding one of their richer feeding grounds. I had no idea what she was talking about. She mentioned a place, I think it was called Sat... something. Serita, I cant remember..."

A young woman interrupted. "Was the name Sateda?"

"Yeah, that was it. You know where it is?" The man replied.

The woman responded. "I personally do not. But we have met several people recently from that planet. The told some of us the story of when they were attacked by the Wraith several years ago. They had much more advanced technology than my people do, but stood no chance against the Wraith. Their city, I believe it held many tens of thousands of people, was destroyed and survivors were still fighting when the Wraith were defeated by someone else. They said they saw metal machines moving on their own shooting red beams at the Wraith soldiers. It was also mentioned they had flying machines that chased and destroyed the Wraith darts yet were unaffected by the Wraith weapons. There were also bright flashes in the sky where the Wraith did battle with someone else. After the battle was over, most of the survivors gathered in a large field near the Ring of the Ancestors. It was about ten days later when several large ships, not any time they had seen before, and the survivors boarded the ships and left Sateda. From what I remember there was a small group, maybe thirty, who refused to go with them. They found many crates of food about a days walk from the city before the ships came to take the people away, so they stayed in the caves near the crates. After the ships left, large red streaks came from the sky and melted the city. All that was left was the Ring of the Ancestors and the field."

A younger man inquired. "They melted the city?"

The woman spoke once more. "I have not seen it for myself, however, I do not doubt the man was telling the truth. He did give us the address to Sateda, but we have never gone there. He said it was safe, but that nothing was left of his home, and he could never go back."

An older woman asked a question. "Would you be willing to take us there? If they defeated the Wraith, we could use their help."

"I believe I can do that. However, I would like some sleep first. It has been a rather exciting day and I should speak to my people to make sure they are well."

The first man spoke again. "I think we could all use some sleep. I think it best we talk about this tomorrow."

The older woman agreed and the occupants of the room stood to depart.


	19. 18 Concerns

Chapter Eighteen

 **Praesidium** (Year 6, Day 21, 0930 hours)

With clear skies and a light breeze, the weather was perfect. Unfortunately, the council was meeting indoors.

Kaden opened the meeting. "I apologize for calling you in two weeks early, however, we have what could be a serious matter to deal with. The night of the last meeting, Feth and I were talking about some survey readings the recon probes had discovered. We were unaware of it until the new data center was operational. From the readings, what could be close to fifty Wraith ships were located buried underground on different planets. We were just beginning to send AutEx ships to the planets to get more information. It appears all of the objects detected have disappeared. One of the _AutEx_ ships was able to get holovid footage of a Wraith ship lifting off the surface of the planet it was performing scans of. Fortunately, _AutEx_ 14 was able to escape and return here. When the other _AutEx_ ships arrived at their destinations, they were unable to locate any of the objects previously detected. Instead they found craters, some of them nearly four kilometers long. The Wraith are moving."

Ferol spoke up. "It is too early. The Wraith usually sleep for several centuries before returning to cull planets. My grandfather was a child when they last came. Something is very wrong."

Admiral Nera added. "I know it was not our actions. We have had zero contact with them since the battle over Sateda. Something must have triggered them to move."

Feth Te'vos cleared his throat. "I was doing some calculating over the last few weeks. If we assume this galaxy has about three billion stars, rough estimate but I believe it should be close, and we have only sent probes to two hundred thousand, which is a very small fraction of the stars out there, it is possible the Wraith have far more ships than we anticipated. We have evidence of forty seven ships on the planets we have scouted so far. If they are spread in this concentration over the entire galaxy, we could be looking at over seven hundred thousand ships."

Namil gasped. "That many? How will they be able to feed that many Wraith considering most planets have only a few hundred to a few thousand at most now that Sateda is gone?"

Feth responded. "That is the problem. They cant. You said before that a Wraith needs to feed every few days to survive, that would mean about two thousand Wraith per ship would need over two hundred thousand people per yer to keep one ship fed. The total population of the one hundred twelve worlds with humans on them that we know of have a combined population less than that. There is no possible way they could keep seven hundred thousand ships going with the few people scattered across the galaxy. If we assume humans are spread equally through the galaxy like my earlier estimate of the Wraith, then there are about one million seven hundred thousand inhabited planets. I think that number is far too high, but even using that number, That would give us a total galaxy population of a little over one and a half billion people. That population would feed the Wraith for a year if they only had seventy six hundred ships. Once that year was up, they would starve."

Kaden spoke next. "So either there is a much higher human population in this galaxy than we believe, by several orders of magnitude, or the Wraith are not as widespread as our estimate. We need to know which. Unfortunately, this means our factories here on the ground may not be enough. We will need more. Dera, how soon could you have an additional three factories operational?"

"If I halt all current production, and focus entirely on this, I would say five days. If I only use two of the current factories to build the new ones, I would say eight days. We have one factory building the holonet relays Feth gave us the designs for."

Admiral Nera interjected. "If we are going anywhere outside a hundred light years, we will need them. I would rather take the extra three days and not fall behind on relay production. The first two ships left with full loads of them this morning. They are a lot smaller than the old holonet relays, but still massive compared to most things the factories make. Each freighter can only hold twenty of them. It is going to be a month before they are all deployed, but then we will have instant communications anywhere in this sector."

Dera picked back up where Admiral Nera left off. "At the current rate of production and deployment, it will be five years before we have coverage throughout the entire galaxy. Several dozen of the recon droids are scouting the locations for the next sector."

Kaden nodded. "I can understand that. Begin the three new factories using only two of the current ones. As soon as they are complete, I want to have one begin making surveillance satellites. We need to begin deploying them over every planet with humans. Now that the Wraith are moving, we need to know where they are, and when they attack. Have another build recon droids full time. Have the third begin building _AutEx_ ships. I know we have been using the ship yard, but if we can build them here, we can keep _Toy Maker_ open to build warships if we need to. Have a fourth build an additional _Wampa_ assault landers. The fifth should be building the combat droids. If we are going to be defending other planets, we need the ability to respond with overwhelming force."

General Koth chimed in. "I would estimate a force of forty thousand combat droids, and the ships to carry them, would be a good start. We have the _Plinths_ and the new deployment ships, which Tonin called _Castles_ , that are a massive addition to any ground force. I do not think we need more _Wampas_ though. Tonin did his job well. We may be able to recycle them. He made thirty _Castles_. Each one is a heavily armed and armored fortress. Eight hundred meters long, four hundred meters high and wide, and packed with weapons and droids. I think they would be better. Five hundred combat droids, twenty _Plinths_ , twenty quad laser cannons, fifteen turbolasers, concussion missile launchers, and a chopped down V-90 ion cannon on the dorsal side. I think he may have gone overboard, but I could just kiss him for designing this."

Namil spoke then. "While I do not know Tonin well, I do believe he walks a fine line between inspiration and insanity."

Kaden chuckled. "In that we agree."

General Koth continued. "In order to maintain control over that much, I took some volunteers over the last year to learn how the _Castles_ work. Commander Tyr from Sateda was the first, but all have military service, either on Sateda, with Saber or Rapier teams, or back in our old galaxy. I think he is bored. Devark joined as well, plus a few others. Each volunteer in charge of a _Castle_ was given the rank of Major. They are in charge of their individual ships, and each ship should be able to control the ground within a fifteen kilometer radius depending on the terrain and discourage enemy fighters up to fifty kilometers away. The ion cannon can hit larger ships up to fifteen thousand kilometers above the surface."

Kaden was silent as he thought. "So what do you need to get the rest of the _Castles_ operational?"

"Twenty more trained commanders. I think the _Castles_ would work better in groups. Would be harder to break through our lines if they worked in threes. We have enough combat droids and Plinths. So use the factories for other stuff until we start losing resources." Koth replied.

"That helps things immensely. Have one of the now unused factories made additional recon droids. We need intelligence, and they are the fastest way to get it. For now though, I would rather have the recon droids be sent only to systems with the possibility of a habitable planet. That should cut down on the time needed to locate human populations that may be attacked by the Wraith." Admiral Nera added.

Kaden nodded. "I agree. Anyone have any objections or further questions to what we have discussed this morning?"

Ferol spoke for only the second time during the meeting. "I have one. What happens after the Wraith attack? If we are able to drive them off again, what of the people left on the planet? I know you brought us here, and we are very grateful. Do we stay and defend the planet? Do we leave them there? Where would we take them? Will they move? There are many questions we should sort out before we are forced into a decision with no time to plan for other possibilities."

Namil's voice was heard as well. "Ferol, do you have to be so antagonistic? There are better ways to ask those questions without offending most of the room."

"It's alright Namil." Kaden said. "He is asking valid questions. First, I do not think we can afford to set up permanent protection for every planet of humans we come across. Other than those from Sateda, we haven't seen much in the way of technological development beyond wooden weapons. The question we need to ask is would they be able to adapt to our technology at all, or would they be better off being with others of at a similar level of development. It may be worth it to locate a planet and build up the defenses similar to what we have here with planetary shields and _Tombstones_. It would be easier to set up a refugee planet than to defend dozens or hundreds of planets at a time. We would also need to help with supplies till they can provide for themselves."

Dera added her thoughts. "The defenses we can copy what we have here. As for helping them with supplies till they are self sufficient, I will work out plans for..."

* * *

 **Atlantis** (Year 6, Day 23, 1330 hours)

Colonel Marshall Sumner grimaced. "According to your report, of the last nine planets you visited, you were attacked by the Wraith at five within a few hours of arriving. This presents us with a problem."

Major John Sheppard responded. "I agree, Sir. Any idea as to how they are locating us so quickly?"

"There are a few possibilities." Col Sumner replied. "Can you guarantee the Athosian you have with you, Tayla Emmagan, is not leaking our location?"

"I can. She isn't the leak. Unfortunately, that hasn't prevented some from causing problems with the Athosians. It is close to open hostility."

Col Sumner nodded. "Sgt Bates knows there is a problem, however, he does not have the experience in counterintelligence operations or this type of investigation. He has been ordered to back down, so if it continues or gets worse, let me know. He is one of mine and I will take care of it."

Maj Sheppard replied. "Yes, Sir. So what does that leave us? I doubt it is any of us, and the Athosians are ruled out. That leaves very us few options."

"When you commanded the rescue mission two weeks ago, did you pick up anything from the Wraith ship? We need to eliminate the possibility of a bug or tracking device of some kind."

"No souvenirs, Sir. Could it be something placed on someone who was captured? Or under the skin while they were unconscious?"

Col Sumner chuckled. "You are thinking like me. We gave everyone a thorough check when we got back, both our people and the Athosians. Maybe it is something they or we brought back when the Athosians evacuated their planet?"

"We could have Dr McKay run a scan on the Athosians's stuff to see if anything is sending out a signal. That should eliminate any possible tracker or bug."

Col Sumner agreed. "I like your idea. I need to clear it through Dr Weir before we go on a scavenger hunt. Probably would be a good idea for me to talk to Tayla and Halling, I think his name was. If we have the cooperation of the Athosians, it may keep things from getting out of hand."

"It would probably be for the best. Any idea on when we take a trip to Sateda? I know we postponed it in favor of locating the group of them Tayla had talked to, but I would rather not have the Wraith jump us when we get there."

"We are canceling all off world travel until we have this problem solved. Unless we have no choice, we will not risk our people for no reason."

* * *

NEW SHIP TYPE

 _Castle_ class Mobile Fortress

800 meters long, 400 meters high, 400 meters wide.

20 Quad Laser Canons (5 each on Fore, Aft, Port, and Starboard)

15 Turbolasers (3 each on Dorsal, Fore, Aft, Port, and Starboard)

8 Concussion missile launchers (20 missiles each)

1 V-90b compact planetary ion cannon (dorsal side with 120 degree firing arc)

1 Crew

500 combat droids

20 _Plinth_ automated turrets

* * *

A/N: edited a name. Sgt Bates was security chief on Atlantis, not Sgt Stackhouse


	20. 19 Possibilities

Chapter Nineteen

 **Atlantis** (Year 6, Day 23, 1130 hours)

"You were right, Major." Col Sumner opened the meeting with the Atlantis command staff. "The necklace Tayla Emmagan was wearing was a weak subspace beacon. She said she was unaware of it's purpose and that she had lost it as a child, but recently someone returned it to her."

"That would be me." Maj Sheppard responded. "When she were in the caves I saw it in the dirt on the floor, and she recognized it."

"No other signals were detected, so we are resuming stargate operations." The Colonel added.

Dr Weir spoke up. "I would like to have Dr McKay take a look at the planet Tayla told us about. Sateda I believe she called it. So far all efforts to locate the group of survivors she mentioned have not met with success."

"Considering the area was supposedly destroyed, I would feel safer taking a puddle jumper just in case." Maj Sheppard requested.

"Take one. McKay wants to bring some equipment with him and that would make carrying it much easier." Dr Weir replied.

* * *

 **Sateda** (Year 6, Day 23, 1430 hours)

Within a few moments of the gate opening, the puddle jumper exited the gate. Quickly it gained altitude as the occupants looked out the windshield over the area of destruction. Silence reigned in the cockpit as the four saw a massive area of melted ground forming a wide circle of melted ground. After a few minutes, the jumper set down just outside the ruined area to allow those inside to depart.

Tayla was the first to comment. "I know the survivors I talked to described it as being extensive, however, seeing it myself is very different."

"I doubt any of the weapons we use could have done this, a nuke would have left a crater. The gate is near the middle of it, and there is a grass field that looks untouched." Maj Sheppard responded.

"There is no residual radiation, so definitely not nuclear. Definitely not Wraith weapons either, they operate differently. Whatever weapons did this was insanely powerful, and accurate. The edges are smooth, and the weapons melted everything down to a depth of eight meters. This is in the range of some of the smaller Asgard weapons." Rodney McKay added.

"I can't see the Asgard doing this. They aren't in this galaxy." Maj Sheppard commented.

Adjusting the settings on the scanning equipment he held, McKay added. "The weapons, whatever they were, flash heated everything. I am picking up metals, ceramics, and biological material. I am even picking up some alloys we have never seen before, and a few we have. One of these alloys is the same hull material that we use on the X-304s. That shouldn't melt below fifteen thousand degrees!"

"What does that mean Rodney?" Tayla asked.

"It means whoever did this could swat our battle cruisers out of the sky. How long did the survivors say it took to do this?"

Tayla thought a moment before giving her answer. "They said it was less than ten minutes."

Dr McKay paled before murmuring to himself while he worked a calculator he pulled from his pocket. As he finished his calculations, he sagged. "I hope they are friendly, from what I can guess, the amount of energy they poured into this area would be around two teratons. That would be about the same as nearly a hundred of our gate buster nukes, and it was focused enough to not destroy anything but what it hit. I mean some fires were started, but the trees are still standing less than thirty feet from the impacts."

"Well, you did narrow it down. It isn't nuclear, and I know it isn't explosive or ballistic since there are no massive craters. So what does that leave?" Maj Sheppard prompted.

"That leaves energy weapons, but whether it is laser, plasma, or something else we have never seen before I can't tell. I will have to finishing scanning and work on it when we get back to Atlantis." McKay conceded, then returned his attention to his equipment.

"Tayla, why dont you and I scout around a bit and see if we can find anything. Ford, you stay here with McKay." Maj Sheppard said. Tayla nodded before joining Maj Sheppard in his search.

* * *

 ** _ISD III_ Stalwart** (Year 6, Day 23, 1500 hours)

As she sat in her chair on the bridge of her command ship, Admiral Nera was going over reports from the latest fleet combat exercise. Drills like she had been putting each of the four fleets through were necessary to prevent skills from atrophying. Unlike real combat, at the end of the exercise, there were no casualties. Her goal was to prepare all of those under her command to do everything necessary to complete their mission, whatever it may be, and come home alive. So far the new tactics that had been devised seemed to work better than what she had learned from the archives of the Old and New Republics and the Empire. She was only halfway through the reports when the interruption came.

"Ma'am, the satellite over Sateda reports the Ring activated, and a small gray ship came through. It doesn't appear to be Wraith. It landed a few minutes ago just outside where the city used to be and four humans exited from the rear of the ship." came the call from the comm station.

"Understood. Looks like the first couple holocom relays must be operational already. Navigation, how long would it take for us to get there?" Nera asked.

"If we left immediately, about twelve hours." was the response.

"Comms, open a channel to Kaden. Advise him of what you told me, and see if he wants any action taken." The order from Admiral Nera was given.

A few minutes later, the comms offer spoke up. "Ma'am, Kaden advises to wait to see what they do. If they set up to stay the night, then to proceed to Sateda. If not, then you may end up making the trip for nothing when they leave."

"Acknowledge the message, and thank you." Nera sat back in her chair. Murmuring to herself, she mused. "So, someone else other than the Wraith has flight in this galaxy."

* * *

 **Atlantis** (Year 6, Day 23, 2100 hours)

Sitting in the conference room, senior members of Atlantis staff were listening to the briefing by Dr McKay on what had been found on Sateda.

"From what I have been able to determine, with a little help from Dr Zelenka, was that the area was bombarded with extremely high plasma based weapons systems. From the data I collected, I can estimate each weapon strike was over four hundred thousand terajoules per shot, in nuclear terms, that would be over one hundred twenty megatons. Whoever did this fired tens of thousands of shots into the city, completely melting it down until it was a lake of lava." McKay stated.

Dr Weir interrupted. "Do we know why they did it? Or if anyone was alive in the city when it happened?"

McKay responded. "We don't know. While I did find biological remains, it was too degraded to determine what it was, be it grass or people."

Major Sheppard interjected at this point in the conversation. "Tayla and I did find a field not far from the edge of the city. It looked like wooden platforms had been burned, some of them quite large. I lost count at two hundred. She thought it may have been funeral pyres that some of the people in this galaxy use instead of burial."

"So what, the city was one big funeral pyre? What about all of the stuff there? Surely they didn't want to destroy their technology. What if they had Ancient devices there?" Rodney complained.

"I doubt they were concerned with leaving stuff behind just for you to be able to study it Rodney." Maj Sheppard replied.

"Nevertheless, they left nothing behind, and no clues as to who or where they are, or what their intentions are." Col Sumner spoke to prevent an argument between the scientist and Major.

Dr Weir summed up the briefing in one moment. "So we have a race, possibly humans, with extremely powerful ships and weapons capable of defeating the Wraith both in space and on the ground, yet have idea where they are or if they could be hostile towards us. All we know is what Tayla was able to remember of her meeting a few of the survivors, which was they took nearly all the other survivors off in ships and went somewhere unknown. Does that about cover it?"

"Only part missing is that they are clearly hostile to the Wraith, and for that we should be grateful. It will keep them too busy to worry about us." Col Sumner added.

* * *

 **Praesidium** (Year 6, Day 24, 0300 hours)

Feth Te'vos stared at the screen in front of him. Nearly twenty hours of searching the archive of known planets they had surveyed so far, yet he still could not find any suitable place for a refugee planet. With the set of requirements for such a planet, they all failed on one or more of the criteria. Between temperature ranges, raw resources, land for farming, abundant plant life, and an assortment of other needs, no known planet or moon would be appropriate.

Fifteen planets or moons came close. Eleven of them failed due to having been the hiding place of Wraith ships before a few days ago, and were not safe enough. Two others already had native populations, one of which was at war with itself. Another was ruled out due to massive wind storms that swept over the planet often enough to prevent any buildings from existing. The last was perfect but for one minor problem, the star was close to collapsing in on itself. Within a day, or year, or decade, or century, the star would shrink, and the perfect planet would become a lifeless ball of frozen sculptures.

Feth rubbed his eyes as he thought. It was far more difficult of a task given the threat the Wraith posed. For the moment, the refugee planet was not a possibility. Deciding to depart for home, and get some rest, he started a search program with the needed criteria. Setting it to remain running and search using the data being sent in by the recon probes and AutEx fleet, he stood.

Muscle cramps greeted his attempt to move out of the chair, causing him to wince. He stretched his limbs and back to allow the pain to recede. As he was leaving the room, he realized he should also eat as he hadn't brought any food with him when he had arrived nearly a day ago.

* * *

 _ **Toy Maker**_ (Year 6, Day 24, 0300 hours)

Tonin looked out the viewport at the massive shipyard he controlled. Thousands of robotic arms moved about as they placed new parts into position before securing them in place on the various hulls being built. While there were no urgent projects for him, half the yard was working on one type of ship. _AutEx_ class exploration ships were fairly new, but the hull design was old. They could be built on the ground, however, the factories down there were taken up by more urgent projects. Until they were able to produce again, _Toy Maker_ was picking up the slack. Even with half the shipyard working on other ships, the _AutEx_ ships were rapidly taking form. With ten of them in production at a time, he would be able to launch eighty before the ground factories took over once more. Since he had nothing to do for a few days, unless some emergency arose, he decided to take the rest of the day off. Smiling to himself, he had a thought run through his head. His wife had been too busy lately, and he could tell it was beginning to get to her. Maybe it would be a good idea to force her to take some time off, and he would spend that time helping her relax. Yes, a bottle of wine, and he would cook dinner...


	21. 20 Spook

A/N: Just curious, from those who read the original version, how does this one compare to the old version? I am trying to make sure I do not repeat the same mistakes I made before.

Guest: I think you may want to check your tech levels as well. I am not nerfing SG tech OR SW tech. Yes the ZPM can destroy most of a solar system, if it overloads. But it can only safely provide so much power at once before that overload occurs. It was done in Star Wars as well when the star to Caridia was destroyed by a single torpedo from a one man ship. Also have to count secondary reactions caused by the ZPM. A ZPM contains more potential energy than what is actually usable. In addition to the energy that can be pulled from a ZPM, you have to also count the energy used in the CREATION of the ZPM, and from what few sources we do have on the subject, it took massive amounts that only became worth it when looking at the possible returns on that energy. Cannot forget SG1 almost caused a supernova by accident with a MALP. And all it took to fix it was a small rocket.

As for comparing a ZPM against a reactor from SW, yes there is a large tech difference, hence the reactors sometimes being hundreds of meters or even dozens of kilometers across vs a ZPM being about a foot long. When it comes to miniaturization, yes the Ancients were more advanced than SW tech, that does not mean anything the Ancients did cannot be accomplished by anyone else using different methods.

Fifty million years of tech progression for the Ancients, cool. That doesn't make them peak of all technology. They did a lot of cool things, but they also made a lot of mistakes (Replicators, Wraith, Ori, the Attero device, ETC). Just because the Ancients couldn't do it, does not mean it isn't possible. Their tech progression stopped when they ascended, they probably could have done more if that had not occurred. Never heard anywhere in the SG1 or SGA series about the Ancients creating an entire solar system by pulling multiple planets through hyperspace.

The SW galaxy has had intergalactic travel for over 60k years. All evidence points to a fairly small population of Ancients, maybe a few billion at peak. The SW civilization spanning at least twelve _million_ inhabited star systems and 20 million intelligent species totaling over 100 quadrillion sentients, means that while SW did not have fifty million years of advancement, they had far more resources and people able to do research. There are probably more people researching ONE TOPIC in the SW verse than the entire population of the Ancients at their peak.

Also remember, the SW verse has valued military tech advancement over non-military tech due to nearly 80k years of galactic warfare. The Ancients valued quality over quantity, and frequently abandoned militaristic research on moral grounds, while the SW galaxy embraced it.

I have no problem with feedback, but if you are going to leave it, get your facts straight, and be polite.

* * *

Chapter Twenty

 **Unnamed inhabited planet** (Year 6, Day 47, 1520 hours)

The first combat deployment of the _Castle_ class Mobile Fortresses was underway. Three of them touched down in perfect unison in a triangle with each ship being two kilometers outside the settlement of humans. At the same time, sixty _Plinths_ landed in a ring creating a complete defensive ring around the settlement. Almost immediately, several actions began to happen. The first was the unleashing of vast quantities of firepower from the now grounded _Castles_ and _Plinths_. The second was the deployment of fifteen hundred combat droids.

The combat droids sped through the brush that gave little cover to human or Wraith. Using a pre-programmed deployment pattern, the droids began removing the Wraith presence that was too close to humans for the turbolasers to handle. Five hundred fixed positions consisting of three combat droids each gave the Wraith soldiers no place to hide or run. When combined with the support fire from the _Plinths_ and _Castles_ , the combat droids had eliminated all Wraith troops on the ground within a few minutes.

The outgoing weapons fire accomplished several goals. The first was the elimination of the Wraith fighters within thirty kilometers by concussion missiles and quad laser canons. The second removed groups of Wraith that had not yet approached the village. The final effect of the torrent of energy streaking away from the dorsal mounted V-90b was that several Wraith capital ships in orbit were now suffering under the effects of Ion Cannon bombardment.

The impact of the sheer volume and accuracy of the weapons fire had a significant impact on Wraith activities. The two cruisers in orbit began behaving erratically, which could best be described as seizures. While not suffering significant apparent physical damage, the two ships were no longer able to be controlled. Between the electrical surges playing over the interior and exterior surfaces, random engine pulses and weapons fire, as well as communications failures, they were now virtually useless.

The Wraith fighters, now lacking any coordination from their carriers, hesitated in their actions, and that was their undoing. Before they could react en mass, Admiral Nera's fleet dropped out of hyperspace. Within moments, tens of thousands of emerald and azure bolts of destruction smashed into the Wraith capital ships and fighters alike. In only fifteen seconds, the two larger Wraith ships ceased to exist, and with them, most of the fighters as well. Less than two minutes after exiting hyperspace, no Wraith capital ships, fighters, or soldiers were left alive in the system. The total losses of the fleet and ground forces were six combat droids and one _Lancer_ frigate.

* * *

 ** _ISD III_ Stalwart **(Year 6, Day 47, 1525 hours)

Admiral Nera was surprised. She had expected higher losses from this tactic than what had occurred. General Koth would be glad his idea had worked so well. The Wraith fleet had been caught completely by surprise, and only a last ditch suicide run by a small group of their fighters had caused any damage to her fleet. New tactics needed more than one actual test before they could be considered effective, though from this test, the results were impressive.

Opening a channel to General Koth on the ground, Admiral Nera spoke. "General, congratulations on your battle planning. How is the situation planet side?"

"I think we scared the hell out of the locals. I have already ordered all combat droids to return to their ships. They were already frightened and on the run due to the Wraith attacking. At this point, I would think they dug holes in the ground and jumped in, pulling the ground over them. We will be lifting off as soon as they are recovered. Within half an hour I should have all the _Plinths_ recovered as well. The only issue I have is the six droids we lost down here. We need a way to recover them so nothing is left behind. They are far enough outside the village and humans on sensors that I can hit destroy them with a couple turbolaser shots, but that wont always be the case."

Admiral Nera replied. "Understood. I wish we had a suitable refugee planet to use, but without one, there is no reason for us to make contact with the locals. And we cannot leave a force here long term. "

"Sad but true. Once we exit atmo, we will join up with the fleet for the trip home. I want to begin an evaluation of the after-action reports as soon as I can to see if we need any changes to the battle plan for next time."

"I think we should invite the other two ground commanders along as well. It would be a good idea to get their input. They may have ideas you and I do not." Nera added.

"Good point. Lets set it up for tomorrow after we have rested and had time to think on how this played out." Koth noted.

* * *

 **Same unknown planet** (Year 6, Day 47, 1620 hours)

A unremarkable man verified he was alone as he pulled a small communications device from the bag he had with him. After turning a dial, he began to speak. "Team thirty seven to relay station four. I have urgent information. Wraith attacked two hours ago, and were destroyed by unknown force composed of metal machines using energy weapons. Force also included multiple ships with highly advanced defenses. Once Wraith presence at my location was removed, they departed in the same ships, then destroyed several inoperable metal machines they left behind. Salvage impossible. Please confirm receipt of message."

The reply came a few seconds later. "Message received. Expect reply within twelve hours."

* * *

 **Atlantis** (Year 6, Day 48, 0630 hours)

Tayla Emmagan entered Dr Weir's office after knocking. "Do you have a moment Dr Weir. Halling would like to speak with you concerning something he heard on his trip trading for supplies."

"Please show him in." Dr Weir responded.

After a small motion from Tayla, the older man named Halling entered the office. "Thank you for speaking with me Dr Weir. I hope the information I have heard is of use to you."

"It is not a problem Halling. Since your people have decided to stay here, that makes you a part of us now. Anything of concern to your people is also of concern to ours. So tell me, what is on your mind that is causing you trouble?"

Halling thought a moment before proceeding. "I would not say it is causing trouble, however, it may concern what happened on Sateda several years ago. From what Tayla told us of her meeting with several of the survivors of the Wraith when they culled that planet, she mentioned metal machines attacking the Wraith with powerful energy weapons. When I was trading for supplies with one of our usual trade partners, there were several others there who I had not seen before also on a trading run. They were telling a tale of the Wraith attacking them then being defeated by metal machines coming out of strange ships. They said the ships landed, then sent out red lightning that killed the Wraith. They also sent blue lightning up into the sky. Would that not be a decent description of energy weapons?"

Dr Weir replied. "If someone had never seen energy weapons before, then yes. It does sound like it could be the same group of people that drove the Wraith away from Sateda. Did they take any of the villagers with them?"

The response from Halling was slow as he thought about what he had heard. "Not that I am aware of. The group did not mention anyone being taken except by the Wraith before the strangers with the machines arrived. If they did then I was not present when they spoke of it."

Tayla spoke before Dr Weir could inquire further. "It seems these people are very secretive. They do not make their presence known often. And so far they have harmed no humans, only the Wraith. I wonder why they would take the Satedans and not the villagers?"

"You have valid concerns Tayla, and you as well Halling. I appreciate you sharing the information you have heard. Could you keep us informed if you hear any further information on these strangers?"

Halling replied quickly. "Yes. Any group that is able to defeat the Wraith is something everyone would pay attention to."

* * *

 **Genii home world** (Year 6, Day 48, 0630 hours)

The impressive figure of Cowen, leader of the Genii, sat at his desk when the chief scientist Ladon Radim entered the office. Ladon was smaller in stature, yet possessed an intelligence that was far beyond that of his physical form. Cowen stood shortly after Ladon had come in and walked over to him gesturing to several small metal boxes.

Cowen spoke. "Ladon, I have a gift for you. These boxes hold some of the destroyed remains of some machines that were able to kill the Wraith. What is needed is to find out what they are made of. I dont expect you to be able to build one from what is left, but anything learned could help the Genii"

Ladon glanced over at the crates. "Machines to fight the Wraith? Is it connected to the samples we studied from Sateda three years ago?"

Cowen smiled. "Possibly. We do not know for sure. That is one of the things I need you to determine."

Thinking for a moment, he went to one of the crates and opened the lid to observe the contents. "This will take a while. Everything is melted beyond recognition. It will take days, maybe weeks to do a complete analysis."

"I want a report in two days." Cowen corrected the younger man. "We need the information quickly. Get whoever you need to help you."

"I understand." Ladon replied as he stood, picking up the first crate. "I will have the rest of the crates brought to the lab shortly."

As Ladon left the office, Cowen smiled to himself. It was too easy to manipulate simple minds of people like Ladon. Left on his own Ladon would be studying the samples for weeks or months before any results would be reported. By giving him a time limit, Cowen knew he would be much more effective.

* * *

 **Praesidium** (Year 6, Day 49, 0930 hours)

Feth Te'vos was again in the data center, examining the new information being relayed in by the recon droids and _AutEx_ fleet. His search program for possible refugee worlds was still running, and he trusted it to fulfill its purpose. He was instead looking at other data from the systems being explored. The reason for his investigation was simple. From what he had learned from the Satedans about the Ancestors, he knew they had great technology. They had fought the Wraith for centuries before ultimately failing. He wanted to look at what they had built and used to combat the Wraith.

Before he could do that, however, there was a complication. First, they had not found any direct evidence of the Ancestors or their technology other than the Ring of the Ancestors. They had seen many of them scattered both on the surface of a planet or in orbit over it. It had been decided not to take it apart as they did not yet understand how they functioned. Yet nothing else had been left behind proving their existence outside of rumors and stories, at least not any they had been able to find thus far.

In less than a week, a small science expedition was heading to a nearby planet that had one of the rings down on the surface. It was uninhabited, with no signs of any sentient life for thousands of years. It was also a planet that was barely within the range of supporting life, and thus one the Wraith would likely not bother visiting. While he was not going with the expedition, the scientists that were participating in the trip were the five who had spent the most time examining the ring in the cave to the south. It was hoped that examining a working Ring would allow them to determine how it functioned as well as what was wrong with the one on Praesidium. If they could, it would mean they may be able to repair the ring they had, and use it to make contact with other human civilizations around the galaxy.

That created it's own issues though. Using the ring for exploration would open themselves up for possible attack through the ring as well. Feth knew that the full council would have to decide if it should even be done once they knew how. For now, he returned to his examination of the reports that began flooding in once the recon droids and _AutEx_ ships had begun operations.


	22. 21 Realizations

A/N: Since someone didn't like it when i posted this as a review, i removed it and am posting it here. I apologize to those who have no desire to see the tech and math going into this story.

This is in reply to Rantingbanshee. Your screen name was aptly chosen. Your review qualified as a rant quite well. It also resembled a banshee in that it lacked substance (evidence) and thus had no real weight to it.

Yes I did ask you get your facts correct. It wasn't a goof.

There is one major law of physics that contradicts your assumption that it is physical force that destroys the solar system. That would be the fact, and law of physics, stating that force cannot exist in a vacuum. Before you can calculate the amount of energy needed to destroy a solar system you need to know the method of the destruction. There is a large difference between the solar system collapsing in on itself versus everything disintegrating versus everything being sent outward as a rapidly expanding cloud of debris. That part is not mentioned and thus we are unable to determine the force needed to accomplish the destruction. Since force cannot exist in a vacuum, it would have to be some other effect, so the method requiring the highest amount of energy is off the table. It is more likely that a space/time distortion would be the effect, since the power source is a containment vessel for a pocket of space/time, and the power levels needed to create one are not reliably able to be determined by science at this time. And solar systems were destroyed in the SW universe, with a single torpedo from a small ship.

You claim to know absolutely that SW power generators are weak compared to a ZPM, yet you have presented no proof, unlike me, to back up your claim. No offense meant, but your word means nothing to me. I don't know you. I don't know your background, or how you came to those conclusion. In absence of any actual proof from you, I have to go with the evidence I have on hand which shows a ZPM to be far less power than what can be achieved by different means by SW tech. As for the 'index lore' you used as a source, there are many sources of information, which one are you referring to?

You claim Ancient shields are indestructible, so how did they lose to the Wraith? If the shields were truly indestructible then how were ancient ships destroyed? Why did the Ancients leave Atlantis. They could have remained forever behind their perfect shield, but they didn't. They stated they would lose (die) if they stayed.

Concerning the various systems on Atlantis, there is no way to determine how much power, in actual numbers, most of the systems use, thus they cannot be used to calculate the power the ZPM has. So again, you have no evidence. Long range sensors take how much power? Star Drive takes how much power? The drones use how much each? No one knows, it is never stated in the show how much power is needed for each system in actual numbers. This means your arguments have no basis in actual science and are assumptions.

When the matter bridge was closed, the ZPM went from 60 percent power to dead rapidly, approximately thirty seconds. It was also stated by McKay that they could safely drain the ZPM at two percent per second or they would risk causing an overload. That is stated fact. And last I checked, thirty seconds would qualify as 'a matter of seconds' instead of minutes or hours.

From what has been stated outright on the show and in books, as well as observed effects that can be quantified, which is not as much as we would like. You call the ZPM a battery, and you are correct, in that it has a limited ability to provide power. If it was unlimited as you claim in the second half of the same sentence, it wouldn't be a battery, and would never run out of power. We know it is not unlimited power, as proven on the show many times.

I dont care how many times you have watched the show, if you cannot prove your statements with evidence based on calculations made from observable facts then your statements have zero credibility

Ok, so you have now set a limit on the maximum total power of a ZPM, that of a star. What kind of star? Red giant? Brown Dwarf? Pulsar? Neutron star? The type and size of the star matters as it would change the amount of potential energy available. Each has widely varying amounts of power they generate and have remaining in their lifetimes. How efficient is the process? It is never stated. It has been proven through math, that the DS1 could produce the power of approx 3 million suns. And I do understand the power of a Star Destroyer is much lower, instead of 3.9 x10^33 watts output, it is 2*10^25 WATTS. The power output by the reactor of a Star Destroyer is of similar size to the output of mainline stars. This number still is larger than the maximum power capacity of a ZPM calculated by reliable methods that use actual observations instead of assumption based on hopes and dreams.

As I have already shown the power levels of a Star Destroyer, and from books and movies we know the size of the reactor it has, why do you assume Atlantis would need a fourteen kilometer diameter reactor from the DS1 for power? It would overload the city and probably vaporize it, as it would produce three million times more power than you yourself stated a ZPM could hold. A reactor from a ISD would be more than enough to power all of Atlantis, with power to spare for five more cities it's size.

Why are you bringing in crystal technology? It has nothing to do with anything? Sure the Ancients used it, who cares. SW has reached or surpassed the Ancients in many areas through other means. Just because group A did something one way it doesn't mean group B cant do the same thing through a different method. It is called parallel development. SW doesn't need crystal tech. They have done better without it. Very few items developed by the Ancients have no equivalent in SW. Beaming, wormholes, and time travel would be the main ones. Almost everything else the Ancients did can be done at least as well by SW tech. And why would having crystal tech or not having it determine how much power can be produced? I have already shown the numbers proving otherwise.

50 million years, so what? They never had a large population, at least not by SW standards. A few billion Ancients at the height of their civilization, SW has planets with hundreds of billions of people living on it. Since SW has a population of 100 quadrillion, science and tech would be improved and invented at a rate that made the ancients seem stagnant. And making the ZPM look like a AAA battery isn't that difficult. SW tech already does that. A ZPM would give an ISD II a five percent power boost for fifty seconds before it drained completely. Seems like a waste to me.

I am not sure how you reached the conclusion that SW tech has been stagnant for 60k years, there is no evidence of it. Improvements in tech are present all over the SW galaxy. If tech was stagnant, they would still be using the same ships 60k years later, when it is quite evident in the books and movies that ships and other items were obsolete within a few years or decades at most.

Cool, the Ancients visited five galaxies, and they seem to have screwed up every one. Between the Ori, replicators, Wraith, and other mistakes they caused, they seem to break more than they fix. They even left their tech behind to be stolen by the Goa'uld, allowing them to enslave billions for thousands of years. I am not seeing the Ancients as the ultimate in tech or morals here.

Energy to matter conversion, awesome. Still have to have resources. Energy is a resource, so where does it come from? It does not just appear out of nowhere, it has to be created somewhere. Yeah Carter made some stuff on the Asgard ship, but that energy came from somewhere, in this case the reactor on the ship. That ship had to be built, and took resources. So yes the Ancients still needed to scrounge for resources, the EM converters were more for convenience. They still needed the resources to actually make the damned energy.

It is true, the Asgard are behind the Ancients when it comes to tech. I never denied it. All their energy to matter converters still take resources, energy is a resource that has to come from somewhere, and to create the energy you need... resources.

You are correct on one thing, for me to compare SW tech to SG tech has been a bit insane, between sorting out the tech out, dealing with annoying critics who cannot grasp the simple concept of evidence trumps erroneous conclusions based on wild guess work and baseless assumptions. I would also have to be insane to believe that the Ancients were better at everything than anyone else could be, when all evidence points to the opposite.

So in conclusion, you have shown no respect to me, and have shown you have no respect for actual discussion since you have presented multiple insults against my intelligence and person. Why should I show respect for someone who has obviously given none to anyone else. So far my facts have been proven, and have yet to be challenged by evidence to the contrary. As for having an open mind, I can say firmly that it is. If I am incorrect on something, and someone can show me proof, as several other reviewers have in the past, I will correct the story as I have done before. The definition of an 'open mind' requires that your understanding of something change when new facts are presented. I have yet to see any new facts in your review, only opinions, assumptions, and conclusions based on nothing provable. If you wish to actually change my mind on anything mentioned above, then please do so with evidence, since that is all that matters.

* * *

Chapter Twenty One

 **Praesidium** (Year 6, Day 56, 0830 hours)

The trio of gathered persons, Kaden, Nera, and Feth, were the only ones in the room occupied mostly with a massive holo of the galaxy called Pegasus by the Satedans. Nearly all of the illuminated stars were grays of varying intensity. In one small section of the galactic map there were stars of different colors. Within a few moments, the holo enlarged until the section with the non-gray stars filled the holo image.

Feth was the first to speak. "This is what we have explored so far. In this view, the systems are categorized by what we are looking for. The gray stars are ones we have not sent a recon droid or _AutEx_ to. The others have all been explored by at least a recon droid. The colors correspond to what was found there. Stars with no planets are in yellow. If there are planets, but none that could support life, they are marked in violet. Planets that had Wraith ships hiding on them are marked in red. The blue ones are habitable planets with no known human or Wraith life. Lastly are the green planets that have human life as far as we can tell."

Admiral Nera commented. "So we have explored a small piece of a little corner of this galaxy. I am beginning to think we will never be able to complete the map."

Feth chuckled. "It seems so. There is hope though. In the last six weeks, since we have exclusively sent recon droids to planets with the possibility of habitable planets, we have discovered quite a bit. This region is three sectors, our current one and the two on either side. For the purposes of exploration, we have divided the galaxy into a thousand sectors. It will definitely take over a century to recon every star, but we wont need all of them scouted. Considering how few stars actually have habitable planets, we could theoretically be finished with at least that part within three or four years. The remaining stars can wait until after the more pressing needs are met."

Kaden spoke up. "So how long until we can have communications up through the entire galaxy?"

Feth replied. "At the current rate of production of the holonet relays, it takes a week to make twenty of them. One freighter can carry all twenty and deploy them. Since we changed the number of sectors to divide the galaxy into when we opened the new data center, I had to adjust my estimates of what was needed for the holonet. I was forced to bump up my estimate of for the number of relay to four thousand. It will take time to build, I know, but it would prevent any outages if a relay were to drop out or be damaged. At twenty per week for one factory, that would be two hundred weeks to completely build all that are needed, and we started six weeks ago. Add a couple weeks for the last batches to be deployed, and we will have coverage in a little less than four years."

Kaden nodded. "I assume the estimate for the recon droids also takes into account using the holonet for communications instead of having them return here between each system scan?"

Feth agreed. "Yes. Without the relays, it would take about fourteen years just for the possible habitable planets alone. The more recon droids we have out there, the faster the systems get scanned, but it wont take long for them to begin exploring farther than the holonet relays are deployed. Unless we are putting a second factory to work making relays alone, it may cause some delays."

Admiral Nera added her thoughts. "That may be a good idea. At the moment, we have several freighters sitting idle, we can use them to expand the holonet network at twice the speed. I would rather not have possibility of being sent outside the range of the holonet if we were to encounter trouble. Which brings me to another topic. The surveillance satellites, how are we doing on those?"

"Surprisingly well." Feth answered. "Every human populated planet we find is getting one. The first two freighter loads of them left this morning. It will take about two months to deploy all of their cargo over the planets we know currently have humans. The satellites are all passive, and have extremely low power levels. They are designed to stay hidden, so no active sensors. If anyone approaches within a thousand meters, they self destruct. It should be thorough enough to destroy the satellite entirely. Even with those features, they still have the ability to send a notice if anything unusual is detected."

Admiral Nera thought a moment then asked. "Am I to assume that as more of these satellites are deployed, the more the fleet will be called to drive off the Wraith?"

Kaden nodded once more. "I would think so. General Koth's training for Castle commanders seems to be going well. Is there cause for concern?"

Nera shook her head. "Not as such. We may need to deploy two of the fleets to forward areas and rotate them out. It would reduce reaction time and throw off any attempts by the Wraith to locate our position. Soon it will take too long for us to respond to Wraith attacks and operating out of one location is bad operational security."

Kaden sighed. "I would never have thought of that aspect. Then again I was never military. Any other issues with the military side of things I want you to bring up. You and General Koth are the most experienced we have currently."

"There is something else. If we want to keep reaction times down, we need more ships and trained naval personnel. I would also advise opening a Naval Academy. Many of the Satedans are former military, and we have some as well that are performing non-military vocations. The other reason for it is we currently have only four command ships. That means we have only three offensive fleets able to respond at any given time. If we are setting out to defend the humans in this galaxy from the Wraith, we will be overwhelmed with sheer numbers of attacks occurring at any given time once our surveillance resources have expanded far enough." Admiral Nera replied.

Kaden spoke after a moment. "Understood. Can you draw up a plan for the Naval Academy and bring it to the next council meeting? I would ask that you include Koth on the planning side. If he needs personnel as well, it would be easier if you could combine what parts of the training you can, as his needs are far lower than yours in terms of total numbers."

"I can do that. The meeting is next week, correct?"

Feth responded. "Yes, and I have some news to report about the Ring during the meeting."

* * *

 **Atlantis** (Year 6, Day 56, 0930 hours)

Major Sheppard and his team exited the gate on foot, having not taken a puddle jumper to the planet. The people they had spoken with were trading partners with the Athosians, and thus one of the regular locations the team visited for supplies and information. This time was quite a bit different. Sheppard's team had arrived less than a day after a Wraith attack. Luck was with them as not long after the attack had begun, strange ships had arrived and driven or killed off the Wraith both on planet and above it.

"Dr Weir." Tayla said as she approached the older woman. "We have some information on the strangers. Could we meet in the conference room?"

"Five minutes?" Dr Weir inquired. "I need to notify Col Sumner."

"That would be fine." Tayla responded as she bowed slightly. Turning, she shrugged off her pack and removed several large rolled up pieces of paper. She then proceeded toward the conference room. She was not waiting long as the rest of her team plus the remainder of the command staff for Atlantis arrived. Tayla had already spread out the rolled papers to reveal the drawings on them.

Dr Weir opened the meeting once the doors had been closed. "Tayla, I assume the information you have concerns the three drawings you have?"

"Yes." She responded. "About a day ago, the village we visited had been attacked by the Wraith. Since the people there are well aware of risk the Wraith pose, they have dug underground shelters beneath most of the buildings so they can hide. There are also tunnels that allow them to escape several kilometers away near a cave system where supplies are stored in case of emergency. The Wraith spent quite a bit of time and effort hunting them down, yet losses were low. Only forty seven people were taken. Well over a thousand escaped into the caves without being pursued."

Major Sheppard interrupted. "They are better prepared than most other places we have seen. They may not have weapons, but they do fairly well for themselves."

Tayla resumed. "About ten hours after the Wraith began their attack, another group attacked the Wraith and then left after defeating them."

Col Sumner asked a question. "I assume from the descriptions of the new group, energy weapons, metal machines, and ships?"

Tayla nodded. "You would be correct. One of the women in the village we visited gave them to me. Her daughter is a skilled artist, and these are the drawings she made of the machines that defended the village about a day before we arrived. She drew these three. This one she said is a ship. She said she saw it land, then begin using red lights to kill the Wraith. Then a door opened on the side of it and this machine rolled out. She said it went right past her and stopped about fifteen meters away. It then stood and also emitted red lights that stopped the Wraith. She said when the Wraith used their weapons against it, that several of the shots stopped before hitting the machine. It took eleven shots before one finally struck it and the machine ceased moving. This third drawing is of an object she had not seen before. She does not know where it came from, but when the ship left, none of the objects were left behind."

Peering closer, Col Sumner looked at the drawing of the machine that was reported to have rolled out of the ship. "Do these look like gun barrels to anyone else?" He asked pointing to the ends of the two arms.

"That is what I thought too." Maj Sheppard commented. "But I cant see where any ammo would go, so likely they are energy weapons according to Dr McKay."

Col Sumner looked over the other two drawings. "Both the ship and the short tower here look like they have much larger and far more weapons on them. The ship is practically bristling with what could be weapons ports. And there is a massive one aimed up from the top of the ship. Any idea as to how large this ship was?"

The answer came from Maj Sheppard. "I have a pretty decent idea. We found three places where the ground had been compressed. Looked to be about a meter deep in some places. Rough estimate would be about eight hundred meters long, and half that wide. Not sure how tall, but from the drawings, it would be about the same as the width."

Dr McKay interjected. "It had to be extremely heavy to depress the ground like that. And I examined some of the impact craters their weapons made. It was definitely plasma based, but far in excess of anything we have ever seen other than on Sateda. The ground was melted where it hit, and I found evidence of Wraith remains scattered around it. It was like most of the Wraith evaporated." He grimaced as he finished.

"Yeah, Mckay threw up twice. I don't blame him." Maj Sheppard added. "They tore the Wraith apart, and we found no evidence of anything they may have left behind of theirs. Mostly we found Wraith bodies and destroyed darts. Some of the darts looked half melted, while others were in too many pieces to count. I did get a look at one of the Wraith bodies that took a hit in it's chest. It had a crater that went most of the way through, with most of the torso burned black. From what I could tell, that was one of the stranger's weaker weapons. Others were either missing half their bodies, or not enough left to identify." He too was a bit green at the end of his report.

It was quiet in the conference room as they all were thinking on the information presented. Even Dr McKay, who normally would be talking for hours was eerily subdued. The silence was not long lasting as Col Sumner made a statement. "I think we should give locating this group priority over everything else except trade missions for supplies. We know they are hostile to the Wraith. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean they are friendly to us. They took the Satedans, which could be good or bad. Until we know they aren't hostile, we should make every effort to locate them and stay off their radar at the same time."

Dr Weir spoke up. "While I may not like it, I have to agree. Without a ZPM to power the city shields, we have no way to defend it if these people come here. Tayla, do you know of many worlds that the Satedans traded with? It is possible they may still have contact with those planets for trade. It would give us a chance to determine if they are still alive somewhere."

Tayla nodded. "I know of a few worlds. I will assist you as much as I can."


	23. 22 Insufficient

Chapter Twenty Two

 **Praesidium** (Year 6, Day 61, 0930 hours)

In the council chambers, the seven councilors were listening to the proposal by Admiral Nera on construction of a Naval Academy. She had spent the last week preparing the presentation, including drawing up plans for the facilities needed, and choosing an appropriate location.

"...Not enough personnel if we want to continue defending worlds from the Wraith. We have the ability to defend against three attacks at a time, and only in this corner of the galaxy. The further we go from Praesidium, the more likely we will arrive after the attack is already over and the Wraith departed from that system. The sheer number of attacks would overwhelm us, and allow the Wraith to remain free to continue culling planets we cannot reach fast enough." Admiral Nera concluded her arguments.

Ferol was the first to comment. "I do like the idea. It sounds as though you have given this much thought."

"I have. Over the last few years, we have been rotating duty between the original crews of the ships that brought us to this galaxy. This has been voluntary, and many chose to spend time in the fleet to keep their skills sharp in case they are needed. Unfortunately, there are not enough trained officers proficient in fleet combat ships to crew more than three or four new ships. Currently we are splitting crews into two groups. One group is on board ship for three months while the other group is here. That gives us eighty deployed while the same number are on leave. The down side to this is we have nearly half of our trained naval personnel sitting idle, and part of neither group. They will need updated training on the new ships and tactics before we can deploy them. Once that is done, we will have enough to crew 8 command ships."

"Will eight ships not be enough?" Namil inquired.

Admiral Nera shook her head. "With eight command ships, we will have the ability of responding to Wraith attacks within about four percent of the galaxy. That is taking into account a maximum of twelve hours response time. We will need more ships if we are going to successfully defend against the Wraith on a large scale. That means more trained officers."

Kaden offered his question. "What are your plans for recruitment?"

"That is the easy part." She responded. "We have many military trained between those of us who arrived six years ago and the Satedans. It would easier to retrain them for space combat, but most of them already have the discipline and combat experience that we are looking for. It would be volunteer only, forced service is never a good thing. As much as we want to end the threat the Wraith consist of, this isn't something that will be quick or easy. It is likely that our children and grandchildren will be the ones to finally complete what we have started."

Ferol was somber when he spoke. "As much as it pains me to agree, you are right. For thousands of years, our people have been fodder for the Wraith. I would rather it be over in my generation, so that our descendants do not know the horrors we have seen. Realistically, I see what needs to be done, and I must accept it. Many of the survivors of Sateda will volunteer, if only out of wanting revenge for the destruction of our planet. This will give them the chance to strike a blow that we did not have the ability to do before."

Kaden nodded. "Then we vote. All in favor of building the Academy using the plans laid out by Admiral Nera?" A chorus of agreement followed.

"I guess it is my turn then." Ferol stated once the vote was complete. "I have been working with Dera and several others on starting a working economy. Up til now, everything we have has been made in the factories that Dera runs. The issue is when urgent issues that come up, we often run short of the little things that are lower priority. Due to this, Dera and I have been assisting many in the beginnings of their own much smaller production facilities. Be they tailors, carpenters, or other skilled craftsmen, it is beginning to reduce the needs of the general population from the main factories. On Sateda, we had an open market, one that took centuries to create. At the moment, we have no way to determine what an item is worth, so this will take a while for it to become stable once we introduce currency. Currently, the barter system is what is being used, and it is fairly stable. I propose to introduce a currency made from a semi-valuable metal. We have several hundred tons of metal stored on one of the moons, and can use a bit of it to smelt coins for the public to use. If we can introduce groups of coins made from several different metals, and establish their value in relation to each other type, then the value of goods would be set by the public and eliminate the possibility of inflation."

Kaden smiled as he spoke. "I like the idea. It would encourage people to begin creating, and inventing new products. It also discourages stagnation and laziness as well. Can you forward your proposal to our data pads? I want to look into it more. Also, stop by the data center later when you get a chance. We have an extensive library of economics studies and text books."

"I believe I will. I would rather delay the idea than allow it to fail."

Kaden replied. "Why don't you and I work on planning the currency and introduction. We can have a finalized proposal by the next council meeting."

Ferol nodded. "I could use the help, so yes."

Feth Te'vos spoke up. "I will help if I can as well. On to the main topic I am here for today, we have some interesting results from the Ring of the Ancestors we have been studying on an uninhabited world. It seems the Ring here still works, just the pedestal is broken, well, some of the crystals inside anyway. It would be possible for us to repair ours by using the crystals taken from the other pedestal. We have not done it yet, as I did not want to jeopardize our security. I would like to propose we do repair ours. From what we can tell, we are already at risk just by it being here. At the moment, others can travel here through it, they just can't leave the same way. Plus this will allow us to open dialogues with many other planets by approaching them in a way they are more comfortable with. Since humans of this galaxy do not have space flight, dropping in on them in a ship may not be the best way to initiate contact."

General Koth commented. "I am glad I have had combat droids and turrets stationed near the Ring since we discovered it."

Kaden chuckled. "I agree. Anyone opposed to repairing the pedestal?" No one spoke in opposition.

After a moment, Feth continued. "Also I have some other information. We were able to locate some objects that we cannot determine the source of. I believe they may be from a very old civilization that isn't around anymore. If you will check your data pads, I have sent the images to you."

The members of the council took a few minutes to examine the images and descriptions of the objects of Feth's interest. The last few images showed the remains of a large crashed ship. From the description, it would have been over three kilometers long and five hundred meters high if intact. The debris occupied a nearly eight kilometer long field having been mostly buried by time. From the close up images of the pieces remaining exposed, it was obvious it was not a ship the Wraith used.

Feth resumed his presentation. "This ship is the largest one we have seen here, that is not used by the Wraith. I was planning on sending a research crew to the location to determine who it belonged to, and what its purpose is. From the looks of it, the crash happened thousands, maybe tens of thousands of years ago. There is some writing on what we think is the bow of the ship, but it appears too faded and damaged to make out what it could be. I would like to have the research team determine if it would be safe to move, and if so, bring the wreckage back here for long term study. It will likely take quite a bit of time, even with our resources here, to completely examine the contents. There are also these other objects not far..."

* * *

 **Atlantis** (Year 6, Day 62, 0200 hours)

Major Sheppard and his team were preparing for a mission to a planet that had been accepting refugees from Wraith attacked worlds. Dozens of worlds had been culled by the Wraith over the last few months, and often there were few if any survivors. With thousands of human populated worlds under threat from the Wraith, it was likely that refugees would become much more common. The problem for the Atlantis expedition and the Athosians who lived with them was the reduction in resources available to trade for. Food, clothes, and tools most needed by the Athosians would be the supplies needed by all of the refugees as well.

"We are starting to run low on food, at least food that isn't fish." Maj Sheppard began. "So grains, other meats, vegetables. Those are the priorities."

"My people also have some items we are looking for. Also, we may find information on who is defending some of the planets from the Wraith." Tayla added.

"That too. Col Sumner wants as much information as we can get. If we are unable to trade for food on this trip, Dr Weir has said she would begin rationing. The food isn't great, but only being able to get half of what we get now doesn't make it any better." Maj Sheppard continued. We leave in fifteen minutes, so make sure you have all your gear, then meet in the control room.

* * *

 **In deep space on an unknown vessel** (Year 6, Day 62, 0200 hours)

On the bridge of a run down ship, a man called for the Captain, not far from him. "Larrin, one of our spy satellites picked up something you should see."

The woman in question walked over to the man who had spoken. "What have ya got?"

The man pointed to the view-screen before him, one barely functional but still displaying a recording taken a few days earlier. The video showed Wraith ships in the process of culling a planet not far from where they were now.

"You called me over here to watch the Wraith kidnapping people?" Larrin fumed.

"NO! I called you over to see what happened to the Wraith. Just watch." The man replied quickly as he leaned away from her.

Within moments, the video showed a new group of ships arriving. A massive fleet, easily over a hundred ships, opened fire on the Wraith and destroyed them within a few minutes. Then the fleet proceeded to surround the planet, destroying any darts left in the system. Then the video shifted to several hours later, as the fleet, plus three other ships coming from the surface, angled away from the planet and disappeared without opening a hyperspace window. They seemed to stretch and vanish.

Larrin thought for a moment. "Looks like I won't have to hit you today. That recording is worth something. Is there any way to find out which way they went? Or where they came from?"

The man shook his head. "I tried already. They just appeared, no hyperspace windows, and left the same way. The angle they came in from was too wide for us to locate any one planet, or even a handful. The exit angle was different too, and the satellite didn't catch it."

"Damn." Larrin swore. "Recheck the recordings of the other satellites over the last few months. I want you to make sure we didn't miss anything."

* * *

 **Praesidium** (Year 6, Day 62, 1700 hours)

A chirp from her comlink alerted Admiral Nera to an urgent call while she was having dinner with her husband. Quickly standing, she pulled her her comlink as she left the dining room. "This is Admiral Nera. Go ahead."

"Admiral, this is the comm center. One of our surveillance satellites just detected five Wraith ships entering a system that currently has about four thousand people living there, between the natives and what we assume are refugees from other worlds. They jumped in about half an hour away from the planet. Three of the ships are the type we have fought before. The other two are the larger that we have seen but never gone up against."

"Which fleet is closest?" Admiral Nera asked.

"Specter fleet is only two and a half hours away. Next closest is your fleet, Harbinger."

She thought for a moment before responding. "Alert Kaden. Send a message to Specter to intercept the Wraith with all possible haste. Inform them Harbinger is on the way in case they need reinforcements. Also, send a message to the Stalwart, I want them ready to depart in half an hour."

"Understood, ma'am. Comm center out."

As Admiral Nera turned back to the dining room, she saw her husband's silhouette in the doorway. He spoke softly. "I supposed you are heading out in a moment. So may the Force be with you, and come home safe."

Her voice just as low, Nera replied. "Yeah. Hopefully the naval academy will produce enough officers that I can spend more of my time at home." She moved to him, kissed him, the turned to the front door of the house. Nothing else was said as she headed for the spaceport.


	24. 23 Trapped

Chapter Twenty Three

 **Refugee planet** (Year 6, Day 63, 0500 hours)

If there was a bad place to be, Maj Sheppard and his team were in it. Having been cut off from the gate by a large group of Wraith, his team had taken cover inside a fairly sturdy stone building with a large basement several kilometers away in the village. Chaos was in abundance with people fleeing in every direction they could as the Wraith continued culling the planet. He had watched several dozen people beamed into the Wraith darts which then headed back up into orbit. The problem was there were too many darts and too many Wraith soldiers. Normal tactics by the Wraith had been one or two dozen Wraith drones on the ground and maybe six darts in the sky, however, this was not the case at the moment. He estimated at least fifty darts overhead, and at several hundred drones attempting to drive the humans out into the open for the darts to collect.

"Ford!" He shouted over the intense background noise. "Lets make this place defensible. Try to get anyone we can to take shelter in here."

Ford nodded, and began shouting for people to come inside. Some followed his commands, but most were too frightened to pay him any attention. It was not long before they were able to see Wraith soldiers making their way between buildings. Realizing this was going to be worse than they had expected, Maj Sheppard's team moved to firing positions at the windows and doorway. The situation changed dramatically within a span of seconds.

The first change was obvious to all, new sounds drowned out the chaos and screams in a loud roar that vibrated the ground. A large ship flew overhead spraying ruby bolts of energy into groups of Wraith, causing them to vanish or knocked them several meters into the air. As the ship neared the edge of the village, several objects broke off from the main ship, each falling to the ground before adding their own beams of scarlet energy. Elsewhere over the village, darts exploded as the destructive energy impacted their speeding shapes, leaving brief flashes behind. The large blocky ship stopped several kilometers away in a field, one not far from the stargate, and descended to land. Once on the surface, brilliant blue bolts of light streaked into the skies, with others joining from two other locations within moments.

The Wraith themselves also altered their strategy, they sprinted toward the new ship. It presented a threat the Wraith would not abide. Several hundred Wraith drones streamed out of the forest and village, heading for the ship, intent to destroy it and anyone inside. It was a tactic doomed to failure. Before the drones could approach within a kilometer, metal machines began rolling down ramps from the two open doorways. The first two dozen took up flanking positions next to the ramps, and opened fire on the oncoming Wraith troops. Wraith died by the dozens as more of the machines rolled around them to head toward the village and surrounding area.

The scene was repeated at two other locations in fields a similar distance from the village. The other two identical ships had released their army of metal machines as the ship's weapons laid waste to Wraith troops and darts alike. Occasionally orange objects launched from the tops of the ships to impact darts attempting to flee the scarlet bolts of energy. Fifty darts ceased to exist within two minutes. The Wraith soldiers would follow.

Maj Sheppard looked to his team, they were watching in awe as the skies were cleared. The streets had also emptied of Wraith troops, leaving only the mob of humans attempting to find a direction to flee. From the window he was crouched behind, he could see over a dozen of the machines, more like robots in his opinion, positioned to prevent any Wraith from re-entering the village. So far the robots seemed to ignore the humans that ran past them, or away from them. He doubted any of the humans would attack them, at least he hoped none tried.

* * *

 **In orbit** (Year 6, Day 63, 0500 hours)

Specter fleet, commanded by the _ISD_ _III_ Shadow, began engaging the five Wraith ships. Opening fire at extreme range, the heavy turbolasers and ion cannons on the command ship were far more powerful than the weapons on the Ingot IIs, and with a longer range. With fifty heavy turbolaser batteries and twenty heavy ion cannons, the opening salvo had the desired effect. The two larger Wraith ships, identified a Hive ships by the Satedans, were the unknown factors in this battle, and as such were the two main targets. Based on reports of how the Wraith ships were arranged, the ion cannons were split, ten each, in targeting the aft sections of the two ships. The heavy turbolasers were targeted along the dorsal center line of both ships plus the hanger bays, in an attempt to crack the power generation of the massive ships or cause massive internal explosions.

The impacts from the obscenely powerful weapons was felt nearly immediately by the Wraith. In ten seconds, before the Wraith fleet could turn to engage the new arrivals, both Hive ships were each struck by thirty bolts from the heavy ion cannons as well as over two hundred impacts from the heavy turbolasers. Raw destructive power impacted, punctured, melted, or vaporized massive holes in the two Hives as their systems failed due to the phenomenal electrical surge that was overloading every power conduit and instrument. One of the two ships went completely inert, drifting dead in space. The other suffered catastrophic damage from internal detonations, with enormous geysers of fire emanating from the hanger bays. As the internal damage grew, the ship began to break apart, creating a debris trail that grew as it too began to drift. The impressive display of destruction did not deter the three remaining Wraith cruisers. They continued to turn to face the Shadow and her escorts, deploying darts as they did. The Wraith fighters immediately turned to race toward Specter fleet, presenting an ever growing threat to the ships of Praesidium.

The snub-fighters of Specter fleet were not sitting idly in their hangars, they had been deployed before the first shots of the battle had been fired. Numbering over two thousand, the droid piloted fighters and bombers displayed an masterful interpretation of a classic tactic, a pincer. As the Wraith darts came closer to the capital ships of Specter fleet, they were set upon by the combined firepower of over two thousand Tie-D and Tie-DB fighters, with very few Wraith fighters emerging from the crossfire. With the initial swarm now gone, the three hundred Tie-DBs broke off to head for their primary targets. The Tie-D fighters remained to engage the Wraith in dogfights on a massive scale.

The initial crossfire by the snub-fighters had done its job, over half the darts were destroyed, leaving a two to three superiority in favor of the Wraith. It was manageable, even though there would be losses. The admiral in charge of Specter fleet was observing the displays in front of him in the fleet tactics room behind the bridge of the Shadow. In one corner of a display screen were two numbers, both changing rapidly. The first was the number of Tie-D fighters currently engaged in the battle, which was beginning to drop. The second was the number of Wraith fighters, which was a bit larger, but dwindling far faster.

As the Wraith cruisers were still too far out to fire on Specter fleet, and also most of the firepower Specter fleet possessed, the Tie-DB bombers had a mission. Now free of the Wraith darts, they sped outside the combat area before turning at high speed to aim at the ventral side of the three remaining Wraith ships. Once in range of the proton torpedoes being carried, they locked on and launched one torpedo each. Once the torpedoes were on their way, the bombers reversed course to stay outside the five kilometer danger zone that had been observed from seeing several of the Wraith ships explode. A few seconds later the danger zone earned it's name as all three remaining Wraith capital ships cracked and detonated wiping out the few remaining fighters close to them.

This caused a change in the goals of the darts still engaged in combat with the Tie-D snub-fighters. They quickly broke off their engagements and rocketed toward the capital ships of Specter fleet. Seeing this, the admiral in charge of the fleet ordered all Tie-D and Tie-DB fighters to exit the engagement zone at best possible speed. Within thirty seconds, the lane was clear of friendlies and the capitol ships opened fire once the Wraith darts entered range. Quad laser cannons, turbolasers, and heavy turbolasers from over one hundred ships created a blinding cascade of light as the wave smashed into the approaching Wraith fighters. The sheer volume of energy striking the small ships left very little debris as most were vaporized instantly. From beginning to end, the Wraith fleet ceased to exist within fifteen minutes.

* * *

 **Planet surface** (Year 6, Day 63, 0520 hours)

"Specter fleet to Col Tyr. All enemy ships reported destroyed. Fleet beginning sweep of planet to verify no remaining ships in atmosphere."

The man smiled. "Understood. Give my thanks to the admiral. Inform him the ground battle is nearly over. Sensors are showing less than fifty Wraith remain down here, and combat droids have their position surrounded. It should not take long."

"Acknowledged. Specter fleet out."

Col Tyr rechecked his displays from the command room of the _Castle_ Mobile Fortress he was commanding. He had lost nineteen of his combat droids, and the other two _Castles_ currently on the planet reported similar losses. Monitoring his current forces, he noticed something on one of the monitors. It displayed several radio frequencies currently being used, however, they were not used by any of the Praesidium Military. It seemed that someone, who appeared advanced as Sateda had been, was on the planet. That was not in the intelligence report. Attaching a notation to the recording of the radio transmissions, he forwarded it to Specter fleet. Returning to his main task, he observed with glee as the last of the Wraith drones charged the combat droids, dying in the process. While he was not a bloodthirsty man, he was glad to see the Wraith threat reduced.  
He also checked on the twenty Plinths that were assigned to his ship. They had fared rather well. None damaged or destroyed, while being responsible for preventing the Wraith from escaping the boundary they created when combined with the Plinths from the other two _Castles_. Nineteen darts had also been destroyed by the Plinths. Now he knew why they had been created. Without them, many of the Wraith may have escaped and would have had to be hunted down.

Once the ground fight was over he ordered his combat droids to return to their storage areas inside the ship, excluding two dozen he ordered to remain outside until he was ready to depart. There were also a few he ordered to the locations of the few inert combat droids. Composing his report, he requested a salvage ship to pick up the disabled and destroyed combat droids to prevent the technology from being used against them. As he finished his report and was about to send it, he received a message from the admiral in charge of Specter fleet. It requested that he remain on planet for a bit, in an attempt to make contact with the group using the radio communications. The radio transmissions had been decrypted, and transcripts had been forwarded to him to examine. He sent off his report before opening the transcripts.

* * *

 **Same planet** (Year 6, Day 63, 0530 hours)

Maj Sheppard peered through his binoculars at the ship sitting five hundred meters from the stargate. It was massive, casting a long shadow as the sun over this world traveled lower in the sky. It did not take him long to see the weapons attached to the ship, including the massive one aimed at the sky. About a dozen of the armed robots could be seen from his position, each stationed in groups of three along this side of the ship. So far there had been no reaction to his presence at the edge of the treeline. That would likely change if he were to make an aggressive move.

His radio clicked twice, only audible through his ear piece. "This is Sheppard, over."

"This is Ford, it looks like these weapons are creating a perimeter, about two kilometers outside the edges of of the village. I have watched people running past them, and nothing. There are a lot of dead Wraith around, but it does not look like they have killed any humans."

"Understood. I am in the treeline about four hundred meters from the stargate, and there is a ship sitting in the field about five hundred meters to the east of the stargate from my position. They have a dozen robots on this side of the ship, and I would assume it is the same on the other side as well. Not sure what they are waiting on, the Wraith are dead now, so they may be about to leave."

"So we are waiting till they leave before we head back to Atlantis?" Tayla asked.

"Definitely. We have no idea as to if they will be hostile to us. Until we can figure out what happened to the survivors of Sateda, we are not to make contact. Those were the orders. Ford, get back to McKay and Tayla. Check over our supplies to see how long we can stay before taking a chance on the gate, just in case they stick around a while. I am going to stay here and keep an eye on things, if they are still here after sundown, I want Ford to take my place and we can set up a rotation."

"On my way. Ford out."

Maj Sheppard spent the next thirty minutes in stressful boredom. Stress due to having such a powerful unknown force this close to him and his team. Bored out of his mind because nothing was happening. The robots had not moved since he had arrived in this spot. At this rate he would either have a stroke or fall asleep. The boredom ended as the stress level climbed when a white armored figure walked down the ramp on the side of the ship. Once he reached the bottom, he removed his helmet, revealing long dark hair in dreadlocks. The man looked out over the field and the treeline, then pointed at the spot Maj Sheppard was hiding.

Maj Sheppard froze. Keying his radio, he whispered. "I think I have been made. Looks like a human was inside the ship, he is over five hundred meters from me and he just pointed right at me."

"Want us to come to you?" Ford's question was barely heard.

"Start making your way to me, but stay out of sight of the robots." Maj Sheppard replied.

"Understood. On our way."

Remaining motionless, Maj Sheppard continued observing the white armored man who remained standing at the base of the ramp. The man kept pointing at him and motioning him to approach. That was not going to happen until his team arrived to cover him. After a minute or two, the man ceased motioning him and instead sat down, opening a container and taking a long drink.


	25. 24 Encounter

Chapter Twenty Four

 **Refugee planet** (Year 6, Day 63, 0545 hours)

Maj Sheppard relaxed slightly as his team slowly moved up to him. Nothing else had occurred. The figure in white armor remained sitting at the base of the ramp, occasionally taking a sip from a container every few minutes. Motioning toward the armor clad man, he handed Tayla his binoculars. Taking them, she peered at the person of interest. After a moment, she gasped.

"Tayla, something wrong?" Maj Sheppard whispered his question.

"I am not sure. There is a mark on his neck that was very common among the people of Sateda. I am not aware of any others that placed marks in that location." She responded.

"He is moving." Ford interrupted.

They watched as the man stood, picking up his helmet, the began walking straight toward Maj Sheppard and his team. The pace was slow, yet steady, as he crossed the open field. As he grew closer, they could see he was also armed, with what appeared to be a pistol of some kind in a holster on his thigh. Over the next few minutes, he closed the distance between himself and Maj Sheppard's team. Just before Maj Sheppard was about to order his team to fall back, the man halted about fifty feet away.

"Are you planning on hiding there all day watching me or are you going to come out and talk?" Came the words Maj Sheppard was not expecting.

Seeing no other option, the team slowly stood, keeping their weapons pointed at the ground. Maj Sheppard spoke. "No offense, but we don't know who you are, or if you would attack us."

The man chucked. "None taken, but if we attacked, you would be dead already."

"Good point. So that leaves the question of who you are."

"Col Tyr, of the Praesidium Army." As he spoke. Tyr slowly approached the four.

Tayla was looking closer at the mark on the side of Col Tyr's neck as he drew closer. "The mark on your neck, I have only seen it on the people I have met from a planet called Sateda, are you familiar with them?"

Tyr nodded slowly. "I should be. I was born on Sateda. Less than ten thousand of us were left when we were rescued."

McKay interjected. "Rescued by who? As far as we have seen, no one else in this galaxy has space flight or can hold off the Wraith."

Col Tyr looked at the man, glanced back at his ship, then back again. "You are not too bright are you." It was a statement, not a question.

Maj Sheppard commented before an argument could begin. "He has his moments. We have been to Sateda and seen what happened there. The few survivors we have heard stories from say everyone else left on ships, and no one has heard from any of them since."

"Follow me to the ship. I'm getting kinda hungry, and it will take a bit to explain. I can't let you inside, but I'll bring out enough for everyone." As he finished speaking, he turned toward the ship and began moving away from Maj Sheppard's team.

* * *

 **Atlantis** (Year 6, Day 63, 1000 hours)

The foursome exited the gate, well fed and uninjured. Waiting for them were Dr Weir and Col Sumner. Before any words were said, Maj Sheppard pointed at the door to the conference room. Quickly his team removed their weapons, handing them off to a couple of the marines stationed in the gate room. Remaining silent, they then briskly walking to the conference room, waiting for the two leaders of the Atlantis expedition to join them.

As the door shut, Col Sumner spoke. I assume this has to do with missing the last two check ins?"

"It does." Maj Sheppard responded. "The Wraith attacked right before the third check in, we were on the way back to the gate when the Wraith came through. There were maybe twenty around the gate when the darts started coming through. They started beaming down more of the drones outside the village. It took us about two hours to make it back to the village due to the number of drones being beamed down. After we fell back to one of the stone buildings near the center of the village, we tried to get as many people inside as possible. It was only a few hours later when someone began attacking the Wraith. A damn big ship, flew right over the village, using energy weapons of some kind destroying darts as well as groups of Wraith on the ground. The Wraith near where we were went after it, and left the village alone."

"Are these the same type of ships reported on Sateda?" Dr Weir asked?

Maj Sheppard shook his head before answering. "I don't think so. These were definitely not ships you would put thousands of people on. They were pure warships. I doubt the Prometheus would last more than a few seconds against this thing. It went toward the gate then landed in the field about five hundred meters from it. It wasn't long before we saw the robots rolling past us."

"Robots?" Col Sumner interrupted. "Please tell me you are joking. We really don't need replicators in this galaxy."

"These weren't replicators. No little blocks or nanites. They were solid, and well built. We saw the Wraith weapons either deflected or absorbed by some kind of shield around the robots, at least for a while. They shot back at the Wraith with red lasers of ..." Maj Sheppard went silent as he was corrected.

"NOT lasers! They had to be plasma based weapons of some kind, very powerful from what we could see. I saw a stray shot hit a rock about a foot and a half across and the rock simply exploded. Lasers won't do that." Dr McKay insisted.

"Ok. Not lasers, but laser like weapons that took out the Wraith in the area very effectively." Maj Sheppard continued. "It took only about ten or fifteen minutes for the noise to stop. A few minutes later, the robots curled into a ball and rolled off back toward the gate. I followed at a distance ..."

* * *

 **Atlantis** (Year 6, Day 63, 1310 hours)

Dr Weir and Col Sumner sat in her office with the door closed. The meeting with Maj Sheppard's team had ended ten minutes ago. With the team off to get cleaned up as well as write their reports, this let the two in charge of the Atlantis expedition have the time to discuss what the new information meant for them. News of the Satedan's survival was welcome news, however, it still did not ease the suspicions held by Col Sumner.

"If they moved the Satedans to a safe location, and gave them so much technology, why haven't they done that anywhere else they pushed the Wraith back from?" Dr Weir asked.

"I have been thinking about it. There are quite a few reasons. We won't know for sure until they tell us, and even then we will never be sure they are not lying. I think the best explanation is they want to keep their location a secret. It would also explain why the Satedans have not been in contact with any of their old trading partners since the were rescued. They may be the enemy of the Wraith, but that does not mean the trust us, or will be helpful to us." Col Sumner said as he expressed his opinion. "Also I have been checking the locations they have defended. They are operating in a fairly small area considering how wide spread the attacks are. I asked Dr Zelenka to map out the locations we know they have been. They haven't been seen outside a small section on the edge of the galaxy. I fairly certain that is where they are from."

"Could they have been missed by the Wraith? Remained in hiding without being culled?" Dr Weir inquired.

"It is possible, but I don't see how. If they don't have a stargate, how did they get there. And if they do, then where have they been for the last ten thousand years. There would be rumors or evidence of some resistance to the Wraith somewhere." Col Sumner replied.

"They did give us a way to contact them. We just need to send a representative to Sateda. They said it may take a few hours, but they will be able to meet us there."

"True, however, I am not comfortable with the possibility of an ambush the method presents. It is unlikely they would, as they could have taken our team earlier. But the Wraith may also be keeping an eye on Sateda, seeing if anyone returns there. Not sure I would feel any better than telling where we are, and having one of their ships drop in on us while we have no way to defend the city." Col Sumner countered. "But meeting on Sateda gives both sides the ability to keep our secrets."

* * *

 **Praesidium** (Year 6, Day 63, 1820 hours)

Col Tyr entered the council chambers, approaching the table the seven council members were seated at. Normally he would give his report to his direct superior and that would be the end of it. Considering his direct superior was on the council, and the topic of discussion was of interest to the council as a whole, he understood why the change had been made. He took position just next to the chair on the opposite side of the table from the council.

"Please be seated Col Tyr." General Koth's ordered. "Thank you for coming. We have received your initial report of the meeting with the group from Atlantis. I understand how after action reports are supposed to be completed, and as such, they tend to exclude details that could be useful later. As such, we want you to tell us what happened, from first contact until your departure. Please leave nothing out, even if you think it irrelevant."

Col Tyr took his seat opposite the council. After a moment's thought, he began his experience. "As the last group of Wraith died, I received an update from Specter fleet concerning radio transmissions..." Tyr went over his actions in approaching, speaking, and eating with the four. He relayed the information he learned from them, including from the woman Tayla, who was originally from a planet called Athos. "...moved back to the treeline as I closed the ramp. Once I verified they were outside the danger area, the _Castle_ lifted off and began collecting the _Plinths_ before entering orbit to join the fleet for departure."

For a few moments, no one spoke as they processed what Col Tyr had reported. Kaden was the first to speak. "What are you impressions of them?"

After a moment, Tyr's answer was given. "The guy in charge of the team seemed wary, understandably. Seemed like a decent guy, a good leader. His second was a bit excitable, and jumps to conclusions a lot. Their scientist was pretty stuck up. He kept answering technical questions I couldn't answer, and didn't like that much. He kept trying to convince me to let him look at the inside of the ship, and seemed hurt every time I had to tell him he couldn't. The woman, Tayla, seemed to be fairly calm and collected. They all seemed uncomfortable near the droids though, something about replicators, but I am not sure what that is. I think they would keep their word if the gave it, but I wouldn't trust them not to snoop around looking for things they shouldn't know."

Ferol added his thoughts. "Athos is one of the planets we traded with before. Never met any of them as I was not involved with any of the negotiations, but they were supposedly fair and honest. Most of it was handmade goods, but occasionally we traded for food. I had some of their pottery in my kitchen for years, it was very well made."

Namil followed. "I remember meeting some of the Athosians many years ago. I wasn't much more than a child. I remember they were very considerate, and never heard negative things about their bargains or craftsmanship. If the Athosians are involved, I would say we can afford the a little trust. We could help them with trading food or raw materials. We have plenty of both. I think that would be a good way to start."

Kaden nodded. "Interesting thoughts. Maybe we should send someone to speak with them if they contact us. We will have to be patient. We have no way to directly contact them, so for now we wait."


	26. 25 Dearth

Chapter Twenty Five

 **Praesidium** (Year 6, Day 67, 1710 hours)

Production reports and maintenance requests took up most of her day, Dera Kirik realized as she ended another long day. Glancing over the figures for the refinery ships and current stocks of various raw materials, she realized production of required items would soon be cut short due to lack of certain metals. Ten refinery ships was not enough, it seemed. Then again, they had used far more materials than originally planned or the planetary defenses and fleet. As a result, the most ore rich asteroids had been plucked from one asteroid belt already, and the remaining rock was not as mineral laden as they needed. Thinking back on what she had heard in council meetings over the years, an idea began to form.

She keyed her comlink. "Dera Kirik to Feth Te'vos. Do you have some free time? I have a couple ideas I need some input on."

After a few moments, Feth's response was heard. "Twenty minutes and I will be done for the day. Where should I meet you?"

"The data center would likely be best, it should have access to all of the information we may need" Dera responded.

"Alright then. Meet me in research room forty six. It is unused for a while, and we can work on larger projects there if needed."

"I appreciate it. Dera out." Ending the call, she quickly put away the items on her desk before exiting through the door. Leaving the building her office was located in near the three planetary based factories, she went to her speeder and headed off. It was only five minutes later when she reduced her speed before maneuvering her speeder to a parking area next to a kilometer high metal dome. The dome was defensive in nature, to protect the Loches Acies Data Center from weather, as well as attack.

Leaving her speeder behind, she approached the exterior door designated for non-visitors. The security measures were nearly invisible, yet she still felt nervous knowing she was being scanned for anything that could be a threat. Within moments, the door opened and she proceeded through the remaining checkpoints before entering one of the turbolifts that would take her down into the data center itself. She was alone in the lift, as the Data Center was quite large, and most people had already left for the day. Entering the room, a few minutes earlier than she had expected, she found Feth already at the research terminal, typing in a few commands. Within a few seconds, he finished his task and turned to her.

"What's on your mind Dera? I assume you need information of some kinda, or you wouldn't have asked to meet me this late."

"How much data do you have on nearby systems concerning mineral composition? Preferably systems with no native population."

"Depends on what you are looking for. We have detailed scans of over three thousand uninhabited systems with planets or asteroid belts that we received from the _AutEx_ fleet before they were refocused entirely on inhabited systems. As for rough scans, we have close to three hundred thousand systems currently in the database of which about a quarter have orbital objects."

"The problem we are fast approaching is one of a shortage of raw materials. Some of the most common elements we have sufficient overage of we are just storing it on the moons, but when it comes to some of the heavier elements, they are becoming scarcer in the asteroid belt we are currently mining."

"Hrm. Well, Dera, we do have a problem. You mentioned an idea you wanted some input on, so I assume you also have a possible solution."

"First question is rather simple. Have you been able to repair the Ring of the Ancients we have?"

"Actually, yes. We were able to repair it using the parts from another Ring we found on a planet near the edge of explored space. Also picked up some very interesting salvage there as well."

"Ok, that is one part solved. I know it has been mentioned in some of the survey reports that many planets have the Ring in orbit around a planet instead of on a planet's surface?"

Feth nodded. "If the system is habitable or at least was once, then it is only in space about ten percent of the time. The uninhabitable systems always have it in space. Fairly interesting design, modified to remain in orbit next to the planet or moon it was positioned near. Self stabilizing, but lacking a pedestal to open the ring. We have been working on an adaptable program that would allow us to open any ring anywhere we find it, however, it is taking time."

"That would be useful. Next question, is the Ring we have able to be moved into a more secure facility here on the surface?"

Feth chuckled. "Easily. No cables or physical connection is needed between the Ring and the pedestal. They work as long as they are in close proximity. I am not seeing where you are going with this."

Dera pulled out her data pad and passed it to Feth. "Using the list of non-habitable worlds only, and ones with a Ring available, can you find sources for the raw materials listed? If we can get refinery ships to those locations, we can keep our production goals, and likely boost current stockpiles of the heavier elements by removing the transit time currently plaguing our mining efforts. Plus planets or moons tend to have a higher concentration of heavier elements than asteroid belts."

"I see what you are thinking now. Use the Ring to transport the materials directly here instead of it having the refinery ships make deliveries. Interesting. That would make the refinery ships more productive, cut transit time, and allow us to focus on the needed materials instead of having to spend most of the time dealing with unneeded waste."

"That is what I was hoping to do. We will need a secure facility that could handle cargo as well as humanoid traffic. Probably would be best to put it near the spaceport. We also have the warehouses already there, we can store the materials there for when they are needed. It would also allow us the ability to move materials from the Ring directly to the spaceport if they are needed on _Toy Maker_." Dera concluded.

Feth finished looking over the list Dera had given him. "I like the idea. It is contingent on if we can finish the interface program for the Ring though. Even if we cannot use it, we still need the materials. So it is either this, or radically boost our refinery ship and freighter fleets, which also would need those same materials to build in the first place. Actually, with your idea, the refinery ships be much smaller, no longer needing the cargo bays they currently have. Probably will have to verify that with Tonin first, but I think your idea has a great deal of potential."

"Then lets work this out before we present it to the rest of the council. I want to make sure we don't miss anything."

* * *

 **Atlantis** (Year 6, Day 67, 1710 hours)

"That planet was definitely not on the tourist brochure." Maj Sheppard said as he lay in the infirmary. "Remind me next time to pack bug spray, at least several cases of it."

"At least we were able to get the Iratus bug off of you. The samples we were able to collect show some surprising similarities to the Wraith. It may help us come up with easier ways to deal with the Wraith." Dr Beckett replied. "In the mean time, you get some rest. I don't want you running around until we can confirm there are no negative side effects to you having a Klingon."

" Ha. Ha. That joke wasn't funny the first time you said it." Said Dr McKay. "We found references to the Iratus bug in the Atlantis database, seems the Ancients ran experiments on them before the Wraith arrived."

* * *

 **Praesidium** (Year 6, Day 68, 0700 hours)

The study at Kaden's house had four seats filled. Normally only Kaden's family occupied the room, with occasional visits from one or two guests, however, today was different. With his children already at school for the day, Kaden sat with his guests discussing the problem Dera had been working with Feth on for most of the previous evening. Tonin had even made one of his rare trips to the surface.

"So if I understand this correctly, raw materials shortfalls will cause us to be at less than ten percent production capacity on _Toy_ _Maker_ as well as nearly halted unless we can acquire these six minerals." Kaden asked.

"That would be the likely result. We need heavier elements. We have already mined the asteroids in the inner asteroid belt that had those materials. We spent a much higher amount of the materials on fleet production than we anticipated. I am not saying it was wasted. Those ships are necessary considering what threat the Wraith pose, and we haven't even explored ninety five percent of this galaxy at all. There could be worse out there." Dera confirmed.

"This idea you have for collecting what we need and sending it through the Ring, you think it will work?" Kaden continued his questions. "You are talking about strip mining entire planets."

"True. It is rather drastic, but we do not have the luxury of purchasing materials from another source at this time. It was not uncommon for mining companies to move from system to system completely processing entire asteroid belts, moons, or dead planets. The sheer volume of resources needed during the Old Republic, Empire, and New Republic would have been staggering. They had to get the resources from somewhere. Habitable worlds may be better prospects for finding what we need, but it would be better in the long term to avoid those entirely." Dera replied.

Feth took over. "Using the criteria Dera provided, I was able to locate nearly five hundred planets or moons that are completely barren. Each system has a space based Ring capable of sending processed ore through in great quantity nearly instantly. She even has the logistics of how to deal with moving the ore as it comes out of the Ring on this end. Three meter square by twenty feet long blocks of each material can be sent through the Ring fairly rapidly, and transported to either the ground factories, warehouses, or to the spaceport for use on _Toy Maker_."

Tonin spoke up. "That would be helpful. Currently, about sixty percent of what is being processed for ship production is materials we don't need. Between refining the waste into blocks, and storing them on one of the moons, half my tugs are being used just keeping the unneeded materials out of the way. At this point, we have enough materials stored on the moon to build permacrete skyscrapers to house fifty million people. Those materials aren't what is needed for building ships. We have nearly twenty million tons of excess materials being stored near the hypermatter refinery."

"Silicates and lighter materials we have an overabundance of are going to take up space unless they get used for something or we find a way to dispose of them. I would rather not waste them though, we could start using them for building material down here for any new construction instead of building everything out of alloys we have been since we arrived." Dera continued. "That might actually be better in some ways. We no longer have the need to live in prefab buildings, we can actually begin building real homes and lasting structures. The prefab buildings we have been using for housing and most other purposes do not last more than ten or fifteen years. It would give us the chance to use the skills we have had no use for, like carpenters, painters, and sculptors."

Kaden thought a moment. "I can understand the reasoning. It would be nice to build a city that would last. Considering the climate here, the architecture of Alderan or Naboo would fit in nicely. Lets work out a layout for the permanent city, making sure we have room for expansion. Once we have that, we need to stagger the new buildings to make sure no one is left behind."

"I have some ideas on that." Dera interjected. "The first buildings that should be made would be outside the city proper, the spaceport and warehouse district. That would allow us to begin using the Ring for transporting the heavier elements here to keep ship production at capacity. We need some massive warehouses to handle what will be coming in and going out. It may work better to put most of the warehouse storage underground similar to what was done with the Data Center. It would allow us to cut down on the profile above ground to not interfere with speeder traffic or ships at the spaceport. The area near the spaceport has bedrock about three kilometers down, and would make an extremely stable foundation for storage of the condensed blocks of each material. It would also reduce the resources needed for the warehouses."

Feth continued where Dera left off. "Considering the amount of material that would need to be removed to make the warehouses, we can use most of it in building the warehouses themselves. It would be extremely efficient, and delay the production shortfalls if we recover needed materials above what is used on the warehouses."

Dera nodded. "I completely forgot about that. I was thinking the storage would need to be massive, and we could use it for far more than refined materials. We have several warehouses currently storing nothing but flash frozen foods. We nearly have enough to feed everyone here for five years without any further farming. We can trade it to other human civilizations for information, or resources we want here that we cannot make or find ourselves."

Tonin added his thoughts. "That would reduce the need for using half my tugs taking care of excess materials. A couple freighters could make round trips instead of over two hundred tugs. I am all for it."

Kaden agreed. "Lets get this plan worked out before the next council meeting then."


	27. 26 Talks

Chapter Twenty Six

 **Praesidium** (Year 6, Day 70, 0500 hours)

Kaden's comlink chirped, prompting him to respond to a message. After listening to the brief recording, he flipped the switch and called the comm center. "This is Kaden, please open a channel to Admiral Nera on the Stalwart."

"One moment, sir." After a brief silence. "Channel open, comm center out."

"This is Admiral Nera. What can I do for you Kaden?"

"Admiral, the people from Atlantis just arrived at Sateda. Five people, in a small gray ship. You are authorized to proceed under the conditions the council agreed to."

"Understood. We will depart shortly. Since I will miss the council meeting today, you have my proxy. I will keep you updated."

"Good luck, Kaden out."

* * *

 **Sateda** (Year 6, Day 70, 0900 hours)

"How long did they say it would take them to get here?" Maj Sheppard asked. "Four hours and no sign of them yet."

Dr Weir remained patient as she looked at the area surrounding the stargate. The field of grass was green, a stark contrast to the vast blackened ground surrounding it. "They said it would take them a few hours. It is quite possible they do not use the stargate at all. It could be they are not aware of what it is or how it works."

Dr McKay commented. "If they are as advanced as they seem, why would they not use it?"

"The most likely answer is the Wraith." Tayla replied. "It is possible they have been able to prevent themselves from being culled, and blocking the stargate may have been how they accomplished it."

After a few minutes of silence, the sound grew in the distance as a ship approached. White with black highlights, the straight edges gave it a slightly aggressive appearance. Three large white control surfaces stretched out from the main body of the ship, making it appear far larger than it's actual size. As the ship grew closer, it slowed and began to descend. Setting down fifty meters from the jumper the Atlantis team had brought, the lower wings folded up allowing the landing gear on the underside of the ship to set onto the ground.

"Guess that answers my question." Maj Sheppard spoke. "Interesting design, not sure how it would handle seeing how large the control surfaces are."

"Behave, Major. I doubt they would take kindly to certain aspects of your sense of humor. They do not know us or have any reason to trust us. So far they are the only group of humans in this galaxy that are able to fight the Wraith and win." Dr Weir admonished. "They have far more advanced technology than we do, and we could do with some allies since we cannot contact Earth."

"Understood." Maj Sheppard responded.

They were not waiting long as a ramp opened under the front portion of the ship, allowing ten armored figures and four robots to descend the ramp taking up defensive positions around the area. None approached or made any hostile gestures toward the Atlantis team, and seemed to ignore them completely. Once the perimeter had been established, a female figure departed the ship, and proceeded to approach Dr Weir and her associates. She wore similar armor to the soldiers currently securing the field, but wore no helmet. Five meters from the team, she halted and greeted them.

"I apologize for the delay, however, I came as soon as I was notified. I am Fleet Admiral Nera. I am in command of all space forces for Praesidium."

Maj Sheppard was uncomfortable as he glanced to the armored soldiers nearby. "And the soldiers? Normally don't see that in a friendly meeting."

"You and the man to your left are both soldiers, are you not?" Admiral Nera commented while motioning to Lt Ford. "Certain precautions were necessary due to occasional Wraith ships entering orbit looking for survivors or any who decide to come here. As such there is also a fleet of over one hundred warships in defensive formation orbiting above us. We would rather not have to deal with a Wraith patrol while undefended."

"Fair point." Lt Ford added.

Dr Weir spoke up. "I am Dr Elizabeth Weir. I am the leader of the expedition from our planet to this galaxy. With me are Major John Sheppard, the second in command of the military detachment with us. His companion is Lt Aiden Ford. Also with us are Dr Rodney McKay and Tayla Emmagen. Tayla is actually from the planet Athos in this galaxy. Her people took shelter with us when her planet was attacked by the Wraith a few months ago."

Admiral Nera nodded. "I assume you wish to open relations between your people and ours?"

Dr Weir agreed. "Yes. We are explorers mostly, with military personnel for our protection. We came to this galaxy to discover new peoples, technology, and more about the Ancients that seeded life in both this galaxy and our own."

"Interesting reasons. I assume these Ancients are also the ones known in this galaxy as the Ancestors?" Admiral Nera inquired.

Tayla entered the conversation. "Yes. They left over ten thousand years ago, after fighting a losing war against the Wraith. Stories passed down through people on many planets tell of how they used to teach the peoples of this galaxy, however with them now gone, the knowledge they passed on to us has been lost."

"I should probably pay more attention to the stories the Satedans tell. They probably know more about it considering we recovered everything we could of the knowledge of their people. All of their knowledge that could be recovered after the Wraith were defeated here was brought with them when we invited them to our world." Admiral Nera said gravely. "Unfortunately, not everything could be recovered. The Satedans are not sure how much was lost when their city fell."

"That reminds me of a question I was curious about. Why destroy the city completely?" Maj Sheppard asked.

"Simple. We did not want any evidence of our involvement in case the Wraith came looking. We wanted to leave none of our technology behind to be salvaged. Mostly it was for the Satedans. Of a city housing over two hundred thousand people, less than ten thousand survived. This place would never be able to be rebuilt, and it's existence would be a constant source of pain. By bombarding the entire city to leave no trace, it prevents anyone from looting. It also served as a funeral pyre for the dead that we could not recover. This way, their past will not haunt them for generations, and gives a chance for them to move on." The response from Admiral Nera was not what they had expected.

Maj Sheppard thought a moment. "I can understand the reasoning when put that way."

Dr Weir resumed her conversation. "The main reason we wished to contact your people was to possibly open trade negotiations. Currently, our supply needs are more than we can locate with any of the worlds we have been to. Most planets trade for supplies, and there is little available for new groups like ours."

Admiral Nera nodded. "The Satedans mentioned similar in their prior trade agreements. I understand from your discussion with Col Tyr that you were on a trade mission for food and other supplies your group needed? Do you have a list of items you need? I can compare it to what we have surplus of, or can easily acquire. I do know we have excess farm production of fish, grains, fruits and vegetables. We also have large stockpiles of raw materials for industrial use. Other items I would have to check on. How many tons of each would you be looking for?"

Dr Weir was slightly shocked at the question. "Tons? Most planets we have visited can spare little, never more than a two hundred pounds."

Pulling a data pad from a pocket on her thigh, she started scrolling down the list of trade items and quantities already agreed to by the Council. "Currently we offer trade on three different grains up to a thousand metric tons each, nine species of fish up to five thousand tons each, four fruit species up to three thousand tons each, and eight different vegetables up to five thousand tons each. I assume you would be willing to offer an agreeable price on any items you wish to barter?" Admiral Nera smirked again. "We have a very productive planet."

"That is far more than we would need. But it would be nice to have a dependable source for food." Dr Weir responded. "We have a fairly low population, several hundred total. What would you be willing to take in trade? I am not sure what your people would need that we could provide."

Motioning toward Tayla Emmagen, Admiral Nera answered. "The Satedans have mentioned trading with the Athosians in the past, leather goods, pottery, and other goods they did not make themselves. One of the members of our council, Ferol, mentioned the pottery he used in his kitchen was well made, better than what was made on Sateda in most cases. Most of our production has been on building ships and very little of it on personal items. That would be one of the main items we would ask in return. Also, non-aquatic meats would be nice. I can only eat fish so many times. Fabrics, art, and information would also be acceptable."

Dr Weir thought a moment. "Most of that could be arranged as long as the Athosians are willing to accept it. While they may live with us, they are not under our authority. They are independent, and live with us out of safety. Unfortunately, where we are does not have room for livestock, so aquatic foods do make up most of our meat. As for information, that would depend on what information you are looking for."

Admiral Nera nodded. "I would not ask for information that may jeopardize your safety or that of any under your protection, just as I would not give you any that would harm us or ours. The information we would be looking for would be any information on the Wraith, included but not limited to locations, strength, and intelligence on current movements or activities. Another part we wish to locate is a complete galactic map, or as complete as we can get. Currently our exploration efforts may take years or decades to determine where everything is. We wish to avoid losses when we travel, and knowing which planets are inhabited, and what hazards are out there would assist greatly."

Dr McKay, who had remained relatively silent throughout the talks, finally spoke up. "If you are so advanced, why haven't you already found all this out? And why didn't you just come through the stargate instead of letting us wait four hours? And how did your people avoid being culled by the Wraith?"

Dr Weir interrupted him. "Rodney! That's enough."

Admiral Nera chuckled. "It's no problem. I was wondering how long he would wait. He was practically vibrating in his desire to ask. I cannot tell you everything, but I can tell you some. Our first foray in this galaxy outside our planet was six years ago to a neighboring planet in our system. On that planet, we found a Wraith ship buried underground. We sent two teams down to the planet to explore. While no one was killed, it did cause the Wraith to lift the ship into orbit. At the time we only had two combat ships, and the Wraith ship was three times longer, and far more massive than either. We were lucky to win that engagement. My ship was disabled and had to be towed back. As to why we do not use the stargate, or Ring of the Ancestors as the Satedans call it, when ours was discovered, it was non-functional. The internal components on the pedestal were damaged. We did not know what it did until we learned from the Satedans after we rescued them three years ago. Concerning how we avoided being culled by the Wraith, that I cannot tell you. We do not know you well enough for that type of information."

Dr Weir was next to speak. "That does answer some of our questions. Maybe once we know more about each other, we can share more information. For now, we should work out a trade deal. Tayla, would you join me while we discuss what goods we can offer?"


	28. 27 Desperation

A/N: For those who worship at the altar of the Ancients being the ultimate pinnacle of technological advancement, I have some bad news for you. A reasonable estimation of the max energy capacity of a ZPM was worked out based on MATH and not assumptions never mentioned in the shows or books. That output is 50.16 x 10^24 JOULES. With it being stated in the show that it can be drained at two percent per second before it would overload, that means it has a fully charged ZPM has a max output of 1.0032*10^24 WATTS for fifty seconds before it is dead. These numbers are based off of three fully charged ZPMs holding back the water while Atlantis was asleep for ten thousand years and the observed cannon of the shield being able to be raised after six lightning bolts. There are some much higher figures out there, however, they are based on wild assumptions and hopes more than observable or stated facts from the shows or books. Due to this I will be adjusting the power level of the ZPMs a bit, by increasing it somewhat for convenience reasons. If you have a problem with this, then I suggest you seek your entertainment elsewhere.

That being said, the same method was used to determine the power and energy levels of ships in the SW universe. Calculating from cannon statements and observable facts, the minimum power needed for an _ISD II_ just to enter hyperspace was over 1*10^25 WATTS, not counting shields, weapons, and all other ships systems. That is only to enter hyperspace, so the actual output may be significantly larger, and as such, a ZPM would not provide enough power for an ISD to operate, and would be a minor boost at best if added to an _ISD II_ 's power systems.

If you want to have a civil discussion concerning either of the numbers I am using, PM me, instead of leaving anonymous reviews filled with baseless insults. And to the guest that understand that facts don't care about feelings, Thank you. =-)

* * *

Chapter Twenty Seven

 **Atlantis** (Year 6, Day 70, 1500 hours)

Sitting in her office, Dr Weir looked over the trade agreement that had been worked out between herself, Tayla, and Admiral Nera. While it wasn't a long term trade agreement, it did allow for the possibility to make this agreement into a recurring trade should Atlantis needs more supplies later. Overall it was not a bad deal, it had seemed pretty fair to herself and Tayla. In exchange for a three month supply of food for everyone on Atlantis, they would need to assemble a decent percentage of what the Athosians had made for trade with other planets, as well as quite a bit of information concerning the Wraith. Also included was data on about ten percent of the galaxy. Atlantis had a great deal of information considering the Ancients had lived in this galaxy for several million years. While Dr Weir was not totally comfortable giving out that information, it was a small price to pay for the supplies. Admiral Nera did say it was an area they had not had a chance to explore, but would assist them in combating the Wraith on more worlds. Her thoughts were interrupted by the entrance of Col Sumner.

"You wanted to see me Dr Weir?"

"Yes, I need some advice. Have you had a chance to talk to Maj Sheppard regarding the meeting earlier?"

"I did. Both he and Lt Ford went over what they observed of the capabilities of the soldiers that traveled with Admiral Nera. While he did not approach them, he did run several scans from the jumper. The sensors on the jumpers aren't really designed for that type of scan, but they did give some results. The armor looked plastic, yet was made of unknown materials that would likely stop bullets. Their weapons put out quite a bit of power, more than Wraith stunners do. The robots they had put out much more power, doubtful we would be able to take them out. Between having shields and their firepower estimate, a platoon would last five minutes against the four robots." Col Sumner replied, then sighed. "I have never felt this useless in my entire career."

"I don't know if we or anyone on earth would trust armed robots. Not this soon after the replicator war." Dr Weir replied.

"He also detected the ships she mentioned in orbit. She was not kidding. The jumper detected over two thousand ships in orbit, however most appeared to be similar in size to the Wraith darts. There were about a hundred thirty larger ships that would have been the fleet she was talking about, so I believe the smaller ships are their version of the X-302. Their FTL is weird too. They don't need to open a hyperspace window, they just vanish. He was monitoring them as they left, and when their version of FTL was used, he picked up some major power spikes. One of the ships, he said the largest one was well over a kilometer long, put out more power than a fully charged ZPM. He said he thought he heard Dr McKay start crying when he told him how high the power readings were." He finished his thoughts.

"So what would you do in this case. We came out here to discover new technology to help defend Earth. Would you pursue a relationship with these people? When we make the exchange in five days we will have a chance to talk to them once more." Dr Weir asked.

"If you look at all of the information we have on them, it does paint an interesting picture. They are hostile to the Wraith, and have not harmed any humans that we know of. They took in the Satedans, yet haven't done that with anyone else. My best guess is they have not had the technology for very long. I believe it was mentioned they only had two ships when they faced a Wraith ship six years ago, so it is possible they stumbled across the facilities belonging to an advanced race, maybe one more advanced than the Ancients. They have figured out how to use what they found, but it is possible they don't understand how any of it works." Col Sumner said. "As to what steps to take next, ask for something, not weapons though as they would likely say no. Maybe a reactor or something to generate power. We could use our being cut off from Earth to encourage them. It is possible that fact may influence them to assist us. It would also give us the ability to raise the shields here in Atlantis."

"While I did not follow the chain of logic you did, I came to a similar conclusion. Doubtful if they would give us a reactor this soon after meeting them though. Besides, we have nothing to trade them for something like that. From what was talked about, they seem to not really have much of a need for anything we could provide. Unless we trade them massive amounts of information or any technology they don't already have, I doubt between ourselves and the Athosians we could make enough pottery to be of equal value to what a reactor would cost."

Col Sumner chuckled. "I doubt there is enough room in the city to hold that much. It will have to be information. I would rather not trade them technology unless we can establish a fair amount of trust first. Probably should have Drs McKay and Zelenka go through the data we have to look for likely trades."

"They did ask for as complete of a galaxy map as we could provide. Also, any information on the Wraith would be accepted, I believe."

* * *

 **Praedisium** (Year 6, Day 70, 1500 hours)

Feth Te'vos stared at the ship remains being deposited inside the warehouse. It had been emptied completely before the salvage ships began arriving with wreckage of the ship that had once belonged to the Ancestors. Over ten thousand years after crashing, it showed few signs of corrosion. If any systems on this ship were recognizable, it could be a trove of treasure with new technology. Already the hull appeared to be made of an alloy stronger than that of the _ISD III_ s currently in the fleet. At least one of the metals being used was completely new. Every piece that could be located would be brought here, nothing left behind. Between this ship, and the data about the Ring, Feth was swamped with work.

* * *

 **Praesidium** (Year 6, Day 70, 1600 hours)

Dera Kirik smiled as she watched the droids work on what was to be the new massive raw materials warehouse. The beginning of the massive storage facility was underway just outside the spaceport boundary. The final plan approved by the Council had included everything Dera had wanted. Movement of the Ring would be done once the secure transit facility was complete in a few days. The underground complex would take months to be completely finished, considering how much ground had to be removed to make way for it. Sixty cubic kilometers of dirt and rock made for a truly massive excavation. It was not all one single excavation, however. Some materials could not be stored near each other, so several smaller excavations would be needed and collectively they would be the storage complex.

The other part of her idea, involving the refinery ships, would begin later today. Tonin was refitting the ships to meet the new requirements. Gone would be the cargo holds for solid materials. Instead, a series of tractor beams would be installed on the framework to maneuver the refined material blocks toward the fleet of tugs that would accompany the refining ships. Once this was done, and the construction of the storage facility completed, intake of the heavier elements needed for major production would likely increase ten fold. This would prevent any production delays or complete shutdowns while waiting for resources.

Her time with Feth had been extremely rewarding in this regard. They had located almost ninty planets that fit her criteria. Some of the planets were larger than Praesidium, yet completely dead. One planet they had found was almost completely made of heavy metals, likely the core of a world that had met some disaster eons ago. That planet would be her first target once the refining ships and secure transit facility were operational.

* * *

 **Traveler fleet** in unknown system (Year 6, Day 77, 0900 hours)

Larrin stalked back to the bridge of her ship. Being interrupted was not usually an issue, but considering what she had been doing, it had her furious. After being awake for nearly four straight days, being awakened with less than three hours of sleep was reason for murder. Stalking onto the bridge, pistol in hand, she went straight toward the console that held her intended victim.

"There better be a damned good reason you woke me up after the hell we have been going through the last few days. Escaping three different Wraith attacks, being low on food, and two ships were lost due to Wraith fire. So explain to me why your brain should not be all over the console in front of you?"

Looking at Larrin with tired eyes, the prey spoke. "I found them."

"Found who? I am not awake enough to play guessing games." Larrin growled.

"Remember the fleet that has been beating the Wraith? I am pretty sure I know where they came from. Our satellites have been falling apart for centuries, and the images we get from them are so degraded, it is hard to tell what the image is." Pointing to the screen in front of him he explained. "This image was take just over six years ago, it shows two ships engaging a Wraith cruiser, and winning. One was disabled, and had to be towed away. From what I can tell, they took the ship to one of the other planets in the system. The design is not an exact match for what we already have seen, but it is close enough that it could just be a modified design."

"We need more intel than just one image." Larrin replied.

"I agree. I checked into where they have made appearances. By locating those planets, they all are in a small area in this part of the galaxy." He changed the image on his console to show a galaxy map. "The image I just showed you came from a planet not far from the center of this area. Between that and several ships showing up on images within the last three years that I was able to find, it shows them traveling in that direction just prior to engaging whatever their FTL is. We still don't know what it is. So, do I keep my head? Or do I finally get some rest?"

Larrin growled again. "Both, for now. How far are we from that system?"

"If all the ships were working, two days. More realistically, a week. Three ships need work before they can enter hyperspace or they wont make it out. They are falling apart. Repair crews are working as fast as they can."

"Fine. Tell them a week, then they get left behind. We wont last much longer like this. We need repairs or new ships. And that system may be our only chance." Larrin ordered.


	29. 28 Clash

Chapter Twenty Eight

 **Genii home world** (Year 6, Day 77, 1100 hours)

Cowen was walking, not to any particular destination. He needed time to think over the information he had been receiving concerning the people who were able to beat the Wraith. So far all that had been collected was information and rumor. All attempts to recover any items or technology they may have left behind had proven fruitless. The teams sent to each world to scourer the areas the machines and ships had been showed no evidence of anything. Cowen knew his opponent was very careful, and that meant he had to be far more clever. His latest plan was just beginning, now that he knew the survivors from Sateda were allied with the new force. Bounties had been placed on the Satedans, for live capture only. The Genii would have their answers, Cowen would guarantee it.

* * *

 **Praesidium** (Year 6, Day 77, 1100 hours)

Admiral Nera sat in her planet-side office. She had several decisions to make concerning commanding the current and soon to be enlarged fleet. At it stood with only four command ships, and only three being deploy-able, combat engagements were not occurring at such a pace that one person would be unable to handle combat planning. This was going to change soon, however, as plans for the next four command ships and their crews were progressing. This would then give a different power projection than Praesidium had currently. Once completed, the current command ships, and the four new ones, would each control firepower reduced from the current fleet capabilities.

After recent engagements, she had decided to reduce the ship totals in each current fleet. While effective, having sixty _Ingot II_ s and an equal number of _Lancer_ -D frigates may be a bit beyond overkill for every offensive or defensive response. By cutting each fleets number by half, including the _Nova_ carriers, she would be able to send smaller fleets out in greater numbers and frequency. This tactic would mean a greater risk for losses, yet allow far more frequent intervention to Wraith attacks. Combining the fleet changes with the increase in the numbers of _Castles_ involved in fleet movements, it would more than double the number of assaults against the Wraith targets. It would represent an escalation, not of force, but of numbers. The faster they could knock the Wraith ships down, the sooner they could be driven off or destroyed completely. Her train of thought was interrupted by her comlink.

Sighing softly, she activated it. "This is Admiral Nera. Go ahead."

"Admiral, this is the Comm Center. We have data from one of our surveillance satellites showing Wraith activity on a world with no human population. It is in our records as only having what looks to be an underground facility built, we think, by the Wraith. Currently, there are four of the larger Hive ships there as well as an escort of two of the smaller cruisers each. They have already deployed their fighters. We also picked up a ship of some kind leaving one of the Hive ships heading toward the surface in the general area of the underground facility. There is no other activity in system that we can detect."

"Thank you. Keep an eye on them and let me know if anything changes. Admiral Nera out." She sat back in her chair, stretching her back. This was interesting, twelve ships, plus their fighters, all because of an underground facility. This was the largest gathering of Wraith ships yet detected. This had to be something important for this many ships to be in one place. Somehow, she did not think it would be a good thing to let them stay on or over that planet. Activating her comlink once more, she placed a call.

"Kaden, this is Nera. Intelligence found the largest Wraith gathering we have seen thus far. They are over a planet with a large underground facility in this sector. I would like your approval to take two fleets to the planet and deny the use of the facility to them permanently."

"This is Kaden. As long as you believe you can handle the situation, you are approved."

* * *

 **Praesidium** (Year 6, Day 77, 1100 hours)

Feth Te'vos stared in amazement at the massive piece of wreckage as it was lowered into the warehouse being used for the remains of what was likely a ship that had belonged to the Ancestors. This particular segment was close to four hundred meters long, and surprisingly well preserved. A hollow area had been detected by the sensors, even though the contents were not visible, and faint power sources were evident based on energy readings. The hollow space was most likely shielded in some way, and it would probably take some time to get more detailed scans of the area.

In the last few hours that he had been in the warehouse, he had noticed quite a few strange things about the wreckage. First was the sheer volume of crystals that appeared to be part of various ship systems. As far as he knew, crystal based technology was in it's infancy at best when they had left their old galaxy, considering it required great effort to even store data in one. Yet here was a ship that seemed to have been built before that time, which appeared to use crystals for a decent percentage of its makeup. He was curious as to how the crystal based technology would compare to the currently used circuits he was used to.

Then there were the recovered items that no one had a clue about. Less than a meter long, they reminded him of a Quarren, at least the tentacle part. Somewhat fleshy on the outside, with definite non-organic parts on the inside, no one had yet determined the purpose of these items, and they had found thousands of them. It was possible they were probes of some kind or maybe a type of droid. Other items held similar questions.

* * *

 **Unnamed Wraith occupied planet** (Year 6, Day 77, 2000 hours)

Over two hundred fifty ships exited hyperspace in two great formations. The first was positioned directly behind the Wraith Hives and cruisers in orbit, but at a fairly long distance. The second formation dropped out of hyperspace at an angle to the Wraith, below their starboard side at a near identical distance as the first. Their appearance was unnoticed for a few moments, which passed quickly. Lumbering hulks that they were, the Hive ships and their cruiser escorts began slowly turning to face the late arriving fleets.

Immediately, both new formations began spewing forth snub-fighters numbering over four thousand. Unfortunately, this quantity was far outmatched by the Wraith fighters already in space escorting their capital ships. Being outnumbered more than ten to one, living pilots would have been in panic at the massive swarm of darts speeding toward them. Instead, the droid brains on the Tie-D fighters began to dance, engaging in coordinated maneuvers no living pilots would have been able to perform. Within a few moments, the battle was joined as nearly fifty thousand fighters of both Wraith and Praesidium opened fire in a massive light show.

The few hundred Tie-DB bombers had remained a small distance behind, being used as medium range fire support targeting darts on the outer edges of the over-sized dogfight. While the main purpose of the slower heavily armed ships was to attack much larger capital ships, the proton torpedoes being fired would also make quick work of fighter sized craft just as easily. Occasionally a small group of darts would race toward their positions, and were quickly turned to debris as either a blue-white torpedo or lances of emerald destruction greeted them.

It was less than a minute after the fighters began their frenzy that the first long range fire from the command ship in each of the two new fleets streaked toward several of the Hive ships. Unlike the previous engagement between the _ISD III_ s and the Hive ships, this time several of the cruisers were shielding each of the Hive ships, absorbing heavy turbolaser fire before it could strike the intended targets. Each cruiser could not take the sheer amount of damage a Hive ship could, but it did buy time for the Hive ships to orient toward the hostile vessels and close the distance. Nine of the thirty six cruisers were completely destroyed in the first fifteen seconds, with almost a dozen more either disabled or too damaged to fight. The Hive ships behind them had nearly no damage, and when the weapons began to fire, the difference in power between the Hives and the cruisers was quite obvious.

At the same moment the Hive ships opened fire, the remaining ships in the other two fleets followed suit. A dozen Hive ships, and their surviving escorts send out blue-white streaks of energy that impacted forty different ships. Impacts from the Wraith cruiser weapons were not able to penetrate the shields of any ship larger than the _Lancer_ -D frigates, of which four began to drift as their systems overloaded from multiple strikes which created several internal explosions compounding the damage. The _Ingot II_ s could take over a dozen hits from the cruisers arrayed against them, and proved it. The bolts fired from the Hive ships were a different matter. The twelve Hives had targeted the _Ingot II_ s and the _ISD III_ s, almost immediately disabling eighteen of the droid operated ships, and severely depleting the shields of PSF Stalwart in command of Harbinger fleet.

If the opening salvo from the Wraith capital ships had been impressive, the return fire from the combined ships of Harbinger and Shadow fleets would have been considered divine intervention. Having opened fire with all batteries at the same moment as the Wraith fleet, a wave of emerald turbolaser fire with interspersed blue ion cannon fire washed over the Wraith, piercing, burning, melting, and vaporizing massive sections of the Hives and cruisers. Only four Wraith Hives were still operational with the ability to continue combat. Within moments, instead of sending more of the massive bolts of energy toward their enemies, hyperspace windows opened taking the four damaged yet operational hive ships away from the battle. For the first time in recent memory of the galaxy, the Wraith retreated, leaving behind over forty disabled or destroyed capital ships, and all of the operational darts.

Admiral Nera was unconscious and bleeding, thus unable to witness the Wraith in their retreat. Her ship, having been struck by over twenty of the bolts from the Hive ships in the opening moments, suffered from massive electrical surges that shorted out many of the consoles and monitors on the bridge. Several conduits had exploded inside the walls, sending out shrapnel in the enclosed bridge. Flying metal had met her armored flesh, and pierced her skin in multiple places on her left leg. Several of her bridge crew lay dead or severely injured on the deck as others attempted to provide medical treatment. The shields had kept the bulk of the Wraith weapons damage from penetrating; however, like ion cannon fire, it had caused an electrical feedback that was wreaking havoc on all systems. This left the remainder of Harbinger fleet without tactical coordination, resulting in each ship operating on its preprogrammed backup tactics.

As soon as the PSF Stalwart had lost communications with its fleet, _Ingot II_ triads began to advance with their _Lancer_ -D escorts. They immediately began targeting any Wraith ships in range, beginning with the greatest threats being the darts. Within moments, thousands of lances of emerald energy were fired into the still ongoing fighter frenzy. At the same moment, the Tie-D fighters began streaking away to avoid friendly fire. Once outside the engagement, they pivoted to face the darts once more adding their four laser cannons to the already devastating onslaught the capital ships had begun. The Tie-DB bombers had never ceased their task of picking off the outer edges, began moving in range to use their arsenal of eight laser cannons each.

The darts still in operation among the vast cloud of debris now had no carriers to return to. Facing destruction in all directions, they began suicide runs on any ships they could locate. Of the original number less than eight thousand remained, which was more than enough to cause severe damage to several of the triads as well as their escorts. While most never made it to their targets, enough did to leave almost thirty ships dead in space or too badly damaged to continue combat.


	30. 29 Realization

Chapter Twenty Nine

 **Unnamed Wraith occupied planet** (Year 6, Day 77, 2015 hours)

The bridge crew of the PSF Shadow, the second of the two command ships that had participated in the massive engagement, stared in shock at the viewscreens. Visible to the men and women on board was an image of destruction. Some ships drifted on uncontrolled paths, while others were burning as they broke apart. The main concern was the PSF Stalwart, it had taken the brunt of the fire from two Hive ships, and was currently unpowered on it's course. It was one of more than sixty ships that were currently not responding to any communications. The comm officer quickly send a message to Praesidium requesting all salvage ships and hyperspace capable tugs for recovery operations.

As the message was sent, the Admiral in charge of Shadow Fleet directed all available ships to open fire on the disabled Wraith ships that may be able to return to hostilities. All across the battlefield, weapons once more opened fire. Wraith ships that still were relatively intact were pulverized in rapid order as turbolasers and proton torpedoes chewed through hulls to create a widely expanding debris field. As Wraith ships were reduced to fragments, damage reports continued to flow into the only operational command ship in the system.

It had taken a few minutes for the PSF Shadow to gain control over the PSF Stalwart's fleet. With the PSF Stalwart disabled, as well as numerous damaged or destroyed _Ingot II_ s and _Lancer_ -Ds, they had lost over a quarter of their capital ships in the battle. The fighters, which had been outnumbered, faired far worse. The current reports showed less than twelve hundred snub-fighters remaining of more than four thousand that had been deployed. The Wraith had lost nearly all of their fleet, but the losses Harbinger and Specter fleets had sustained were much greater than anticipated. Repairing or replacing the ships currently unusable from both fleets could take months, or longer. After compiling an updated report of the battle's results, the commander of Specter fleet ordered it send to Praesidium. It was one of the few items left to complete before the system would be empty once more.

The other items on the list of mission objectives were simpler. First was the denial of the underground facility to the Wraith. In that task, the PSF Shadow could excel. Even from high orbit over the planet, the heavy turbolaser batteries could strike with massive force and great accuracy. Orienting itself with its bow toward the planet, fifty massive guns began firing in groups of five. The enhanced images on the viewscreens of the PSF Shadow projected the sight of several hundred impacts in a relatively small area on the surface of the planet. The first impacts were near the entrance of the facility, causing it to collapse in on itself as the cave-like entrance went from solid stone to liquid. Slowly the impact points shifted following the terrain over the underground facility. As the facility expanded underground, so did the points of impact of the powerful weapons that smote the ground above. Rock that had been able to survive for millions of years cracked, collapsing into the empty caverns below.

A complete cave in would have taken only a few minutes, yet the downpour of verdant energy continued, each new impact adding almost one hundred million terajoules of energy to the already destroyed facility. Stone melted and organic matter vaporized as temperatures went beyond that of an active volcanic eruption. Flowing as if it were an ocean, the molten stone drained into lowest areas of the facility, eliminating any chance of survival from its occupants. Toxic fumes rose from the lava, adding to the rapidly developing dust clouds. For half an hour, bolts of destruction rained down creating a lake of fire nearly twenty kilometers long and ten deep. Finally the emerald bolts ceased, leaving behind an area of focused annihilation.

Now came the final task to complete, recovery of all Praesidium's assets and technology so it could not be used by the Wraith or any other group that may be hostile. In this task, living beings were not so suited. Patience is something better suited to inanimate objects or droids. With the adrenaline of battle wearing off, the crew of the PSF Shadow began the longest part of combat, clean up.

* * *

 **Praesidium** (Year 6, Day 77, 2045 hours)

The council members, minus Admiral Nera, sat in the comm center going over the report from the battle. It was definitely not good news considering the grim faces of the six seated in the conference room. The losses were far worse than their guesses could have been. From what could be read in the report, the battle was a victory, but a pyrrhic one.

General Koth spoke first, breaking the silence in the room. "I knew there would be losses, but I don't think we expected something this bad. We should have known it would be like this."

Ferol asked. "What do you mean? How could we have known?"

Koth paused a moment before answering. "Think about it. In all of our engagements with the Wraith before this, we caught them by surprise. They would hesitate before turning to face us. What we are seeing is a change in their readiness for battle. It isn't good for us, but it has to be expected in any long term military campaign."

Kaden spoke up. "Change in their readiness? In what way?"

Koth stood, and began pacing back and forth behind several of those still seated. "Before when we have faced them, we have only encountered a handful of ships, usually one or two. This time we see twelve of their hive ships, with three cruiser analogues each. Usually they have very few fighters deployed and only begin launching them when we have arrived in system, this time their entire fighter force was in space waiting. These two changes means they are altering their tactics due to an outside force. We found a flaw in their thinking, and exploited it. Now they are correcting that flaw. Then there is the other side of the equation. So far we have had great success, and likely good luck as well, due to them not being prepared for us as we catch them by surprise. A massive alpha strike before they can respond to our presence has been what we have relied on. They have changed their tactics, now we need to change ours in response. What those changes will be, I cannot say. I have little experience in space combat, so it is likely I may have missed many of the smaller changes in their fleet tactics."

A soft chime sounded before anyone could respond to Koth's conclusions. Kaden pressed a button on the conference table to open this side of the link. "This is Tonin on _Toy Maker_. What can I do for the council today?"

Kaden's answer came quickly. "Tonin, we just received a report from an engagement with a Wraith fleet. Losses were much higher than we anticipated. It looks like one of the _ISD III_ s, over sixty smaller ships, plus nearly three thousand fighters were either disabled or destroyed. How quickly can you send all available salvage ships and hyperspace tugs to their location to recover all of the ships and debris?"

Tonin's jaw dropped. It took a few moments for the shock to clear from his mind before he answered. "The salvage ships are currently recovering debris from the possible Ancestor ship for Feth Te'vos. As for the tugs, all of them are here in system. I can have all of them on the way within an hour. That would give you about 800 hyperspace tugs for towing ships back here and bringing any larger debris back as well. Round trip should be about thirty hours, maybe a little more."

Koth's question was one on everyone's mind. "How much of _Toy Maker_ can be used for ship repairs?"

"At the moment, I have all twenty five bays occupied, however, five of them are nearly finished with their projects. The other twenty bays are currently building a new _ISD III_. It won't be done for another thirty days or so. If you want, I could halt construction now, eject the partially completed ship, and resume construction on it once the fleet is back operational. Depending on how badly the ships being brought back are, it may not take as long as you think." Tonin replied.

"How long would repairs take on the list I am sending you?" Kaden asked as he sent the list to Tonin.

After a few moments spent reading the report, Tonin answered. "I am not sure. It all depends on what systems are damaged. All of the ships are modular, so replacing most systems would be fairly fast. The cargo bays under _Toy Maker_ have ample spare parts for most systems, but not all. I am pretty sure we have enough turret, comm, engine, and droid brain modules available for all of the damaged ships. The problem will be the shield generators and reactors. The ground factories have not had the time to build a surplus of the shield modules, and reactors are not really a good idea to have in bulk sitting in a warehouse."

"What about the ships that took suicide runs from the Wraith fighters? Many of them have massive holes in their hulls." Namil queried.

"Those will take longer. Depending on the damage, it may be easier to scrap the hull and build a new one. If we have to do that for a hull, then it will be last on the repair list. It would be easier to put all the quick repair jobs in the front of the queue to get them back in the fleets fast." A few moments of tapping was heard over the comlink. "Alright. In nineteen hours the first five bays will be available. Five hours after that, the _ISD III_ hull currently taking up most of the room will be moved to an out of the way place near the parts bays under _Toy Maker_. This should let us get to the Stalwart as soon as she arrives."

"Thank you." Kaden responded. "For the moment, that is all we needed to know. If you need any assistance or supplies for the repairs, let us know and we can get the production started down here."

"No problem. Tonin out."

Kaden resumed his thoughts about the report. "There are several other items in this report to discuss before we end the meeting. There are four Hives that escaped. We do not know where they are going, only that they ran leaving behind a sizable fleet of their own. The Admiral in charge of Specter fleet, since Admiral Nera is unavailable, ordered all of them destroyed before they could be repaired to escape or cause more damage."

Koth nodded before speaking. "It was the best course of action. We know the ships are somewhat organic, from what Feth has determined using the wreckage we have salvaged in the past. Giving them time to repair or mount a counter offensive using the remaining ships would be foolish."

Ferol agreed. "Every ship that escapes will eventually cull another planet. Eliminating them before that happens is necessary."

Kaden bowed his head. "I wish it wasn't, but you are correct. The final piece is underground facility. Part of the mission was to deny it to the Wraith, and the action proposed..."

* * *

 **Unnamed Wraith planet** (Year 6, Day 77, 2200 hours)

After the battle, as well as the destruction of the underground complex, the remaining operational ships of Harbinger and Specter fleets were not idle. The remaining active ships were split between defensive operations in case of a Wraith counter attack and bringing the disabled or damaged ships to a central location inside the defensive perimeter. _Ingot II_ s were using their tractor beams to tow inactive hulks into a stable orbit, creating a collection of ships for the hyperspace tugs to pull from. It was not an elegant plan, but efficient. Included in the mass of dead scrap were a few ships that, while still partially operational, were unable to enter hyperspace on their own.

On his list of ships was the _ISD III_ PSF Stalwart. Prior to it being towed, a single Lambda shuttle had departed it's hanger bound for Praesidium bearing the dead and wounded from it's crew. Also on board were a few of the medical droids that were part of the ship's compliment. Once the power surges due to Wraith weapons had dissipated, some of the ship's systems had been brought back online through hard restarts of the droid brains on board. Two of the massive subspace engines were operational, as well as twenty percent of the weapons. Unfortunately, the hyperdrive and shields were completely out, suffering from massive electrical damage from the power surges that had ended up completely destroying both systems.

Being added slowly to the conglomeration of derelicts were the remains of both Wraith ships and the swarms of fighters that were located. While many of the fighters were nothing more than high speed shrapnel spreading out from the site of the battle, some had been merely disabled by the Wraith weaponry. Due to the speeds the fighters had been achieving during the frenzy, many fighters were unable to be located as they careened off into space or had burned up entering the planet's atmosphere. Due to this, only a few hundred of the Tie-D and Tie-DB snub-fighters were able to be salvaged.


	31. 30 Changes

Chapter Thirty

 **Praesidium** (Year 6, Day 78, 0900 hours)

A lone ship exited hyperspace, and rapidly began approaching the planet. Weaving through the planetary defenses, it entered the atmosphere and began its descent toward the small city. Its destination was the main hospital near the center of the collection of buildings, where an emergency landing pad was lit up. Moments after touching down, as the engines went into standby mode, twenty people and droids exited the roof hatch of the hospital and ran to the ramp lowering from the front of the ship. Moving swiftly, they began unloading the dead and wounded from the recent combat engagement. Within a few minutes the wounded were in medical suites inside the hospital and being treated for the injuries they had sustained when consoles and conduits had overloaded or exploded too close to them.

Kaden stood in the observation area overlooking one of the surgical suites. His eyes were focused on the woman being treated for massive shrapnel wounds over one side of her body. His face grim, he continued observing the activity below as a man rushed in.

"What happened? How is she?" The man asked, near panic in his voice.

Kaden glanced over, seeing Nera's husband staring through the transparasteel window at his wife. "She is alive. The med droids on board Stalwart have kept her sedated since the injuries are spread out and would be quite painful. She was hit by metal fragments when a conduit exploded. Most of the injuries are minor, since she was wearing her armor. They were able to stop the bleeding fairly quickly on her ship, and bacta should take care of most of it. They are working now to make sure she has no permanent damage, but they are unable to say anything about her leg as it received most of the damage. She may lose it. Fortunately, she suffered no head trauma."

"Thank the Force." Nera's husband Galith responded. "I don't know what I would do without her."

Kaden spoke softly. "I feel the same about my wife. She is part of me, as Nera is part of you. It will take time for her to recover, and she will need you. If you need anything, let me know and I will provide it if I can."

Galith sagged. "Thank you. She could use the time off. She already spends most of her time with the fleet, and I could tell it was wearing her down slowly."

Kaden replied. "I have noticed that as well. Several of the council have been concerned she has been taking on too much and have noticed how tired she has become. I think we can push her to remain on planet in the future, and command from here. She shouldn't be spreading herself as thin as she has with her duties. Would you be opposed to the council forcing her to take a more passive role in things? Perhaps having her working as overall military commander from her office here in Praesidium?"

"I have been talking to her about it, and she keeps pushing it back due to one reason or another. First it was lack of personnel, then lack of commanders, and the latest was she would take a step back once the academy had graduated it's first class. This may be what does it." Galith answered.

The speaker on the wall next to Kaden came to life with the voice of the lead doctor in the suite below. "Kaden, and Galith is it? It looks like the only permanent damage she will have is confined to the lower half of her left leg. The shrapnel did too much damage, and we are not able to repair much of it. Before we can continue, I need approval from Galith to either attempt to repair what I can or to amputate just above the knee. The choice is either for her to be unable to walk unaided by attempting to repair what we can, or we remove the limb and have her fit for a prosthetic."

* * *

 **Unnamed formerly Wraith planet** (Year 6, Day 78, 0900 hours)

Hundreds of hyperspace tugs began dropping out of hyperspace. It did not take long for them to locate their targets and begin moving toward the collection of derelict ships. No Wraith counter attack had come, so the numbers had not increased since the battle. The crew of the PSF Shadow observed through viewscreens as tugs approached the broken hulks and inoperative hulls. In rapid order, the first tugs attached themselves to various points on all of the dead and damaged ships, slowly maneuvering them toward the hyperspace exit vector they would take to return to Praesidium.

As the tugs moved away, three refinery ships approached the now smaller collection of scrap. All that remained were the remnants of snub-fighters and Wraith ships. The refinery ships had one purpose, to take in what was fed to one end and extrude solid pure metal blocks from the other. They were not slow in this task. Even massive asteroids could not withstand the appetites of these single minded ships. Tractor beams reached out from near the 'mouth' of each ship and began to pull their meals into the maw. Pieces too large to fit were broken apart by multiple tractor beams or cutting lasers on extendable arms. Chunks up to fifty meters wide were moved toward the intense heat of the smelting furnace, only to disappear as solid became liquid in its core.

Soon, rapidly cooling blocks, twenty five meters long and three meters high and wide began extruding from the opposite side of the hungry ships. These blocks were captured by more tractor beams from newly arrived freighters, each block directed to an open cargo bay door. Each freighter could hold hundreds if not thousands of the blocks, and it appeared from the vast expanse of remains they may not be enough to carry the bounty being given by the refinery ships. Massive amounts of iron, cobalt, and other metals were recovered from the Wraith ships, including many that had only been discovered since arriving in this galaxy. The process took another ten hours before being complete. Twenty minutes after the last non-combat ship departed, the combined operational ships of Harbinger and Specter fleets departed into hyperspace, leaving nothing behind except a slowly cooling molten lake on the surface of the planet below.

* * *

 **Genii home world** (Year 6, Day 78, 1000 hours)

Cowen was reading a report from his spies concerning the Satedan survivors. The bounties had been a boon for information, yet proved fruitless. It seemed the thirty survivors had settled down on a planet and joined with the native population. The bad news was the planet had been completely culled a month earlier. There had been no reports of any who had escaped the Wraith. It had only been noticed due to the monthly trading mission from that planet to a neighboring one had not occurred. A small group had gone to check on them, and found no one. All that had been left was a destroyed village, with the occasional dead body. It would seem Cowen would need a new plan to acquire information on the newest player in the battle against the Wraith.

* * *

 **Praesidium** (Year 6, Day 81, 0400 hours)

Tonin had been busy these last few days. Repairs on the combat ships that had been destroyed or disabled during the battle meant no new ships were being constructed. This put the production schedule on hold, causing minor delays for other concerns. Most of the ships slated for new construction were not military ships. Twenty five salvage ships, twenty new freighters, one hundred _AutEx_ exploration ships, fifty refinery ships, and ten new gas harvesters had to be postponed until the fleet strength was back up to full.

This was easier in theory. Of the ships towed in, over half showed hull damage of some kind, which meant they were last on the list for repair or replacement. This left the salvageable ships on the fast track for repairs. Since they had built the ships using a modular design, the actual repairs consisted of removing the non-functioning module and installing a working one. Unfortunately they were running short of reactor modules. A freighter stood by to collect the damaged modules, bound for surface factories to be repaired or recycled into new modules. This meant his inventory of spare modules was shrinking quickly. Weapon turret modules were the most needed, followed by engine modules and hyperdrives. Strange enough, the reactor modules of most of the destroyed or disabled ships were mostly intact. Few of them had been damaged, and most had simply shut down due to the extreme power surge that overloaded the rest of the systems on the ships.

In total, of the sixty three ships requiring repairs, only twenty eight would be completed within three days. The remainder would need additional modules that were not yet built or the hull was too badly damaged and would be recycled. The good news was that very little additional material would be needed to create the new hulls since he would be feeding the damaged hulls into the atomic furnaces. Tonin would need to add in less than ten percent of the total metal needed to produce the new hulls, which could be done from their current stockpiles on the nearby moon.

The biggest issue would be the construction of about three thousand snub-fighters to replace those that had been destroyed. At current capacity, it would be nearly two months of non-stop production on all twenty five bays to restore what had been lost. The good news was that they had enough currently active snub-fighters around Praesidium to keep fleet fighter levels at the necessary levels so the new snub-fighters could replace them in defense of Praesidium.

Also good was the report concerning new modules for the ships needing them. With all ground factories focusing on module production, he would have the necessary parts within the next week to have all remaining capital ships either repaired or replaced. That meant no time loss in production delays. All of the unusable hulls had already been stripped of every module they had, and operational modules had been used to bring damaged ships back to operational status.

This left the repairs on the PSF Stalwart for him to deal with. Currently it sat about ten kilometers coreward from _Toy Maker_. Since he only had twenty five bays, and the massive _ISD III_ would take twenty of them, he had placed it in the queue to be repaired after the _Ingot II_ s and _Lancer_ -Ds but before the new snub-fighters. This would leave all twenty five bays open for repairing or building new ships to replace the lost ones before taking up most of the ship yard repairing the behemoth.

The PSF Stalwart had come off fairly well considering how much needed to be replaced. It needed most of its weapons modules replaced as well as its shield modules, hyperdrive, one engine, and one of its reactor modules. Then there were the internal power conduits that had been the actual cause of disabling the ship. Removing the crew module would give access for replacement with new reinforced conduits. Even with a modular build, the ship would take almost two weeks to repair since a new reactor had to be built for it. Surprisingly it had almost no physical damage to the hull itself. Other than a few scorch marks on the paint, and two armor plates near the bow that had bent due to a dart impacting it, the remainder of the hull was pristine.

In the end, Tonin was going to be busy for the next month on capital ship repairs alone. The snub-fighter production could be set on automatic once the quota was entered into the control systems for production. If estimates were accurate, the salvaged material from the battle would mean he had a surplus of some of the rarer metals needed. The resources needed to build new fighters were fairly simple, and they now had plenty. This meant he could pass his refinery ships and most of his tug fleet over to Dera Kirik for use without worrying about production down time.

Once everything was set for fighter production, he could take his wife down to the surface for the vacation she kept asking him for. Their tenth anniversary was rapidly approaching, and he wanted to do something special for her since he had actually forgotten about the last one.

* * *

 **Praesidium Council Chamber** s (Year 6, Day 82, 0900 hours)

The seven council members, excluding Admiral Nera, sat at the table. Refusing the extra time off, Admiral Nera had walked into the meeting a few minutes later than normal, against the advise of her doctors and husband. Approaching the table, with a noticeable awkwardness due to the prosthesis, she addressed the seated members.

"I don't care that I lost my leg. My duty as a member of this council demands that I be here unless something more urgent is occurring elsewhere." Nera firmly stated as she took her seat.

Kaden chuckled. "I know better than to argue when you have that tone of voice. My wife uses it as well and I know I won't win."

Several other members also laughed softly. General Koth spoke up. "As much as we would like you to rest, it is actually good that you are here. We were about to table several motions until your return."

Kaden nodded. "First item is the promotion of Admiral Nera to Grand Admiral, placing her in charge of all military forces in space and on the ground, including the military academy currently being built. She has the greatest knowledge and experience of any of our military officers, and General Koth has volunteered to assist her in learning ground tactics from him directly. He has also asked that he be placed directly under Admiral Nera as commander of ground forces, retaining his rank as General, but assisting her with all combat that requires action on the ground."

General Koth stood. "I have now fifteen commanders for the Castle mobile fortresses, all of them meet my requirements and are well trained. I am already in charge of all ground assets, and I believe my role as such would be better served coordinating those forces and working more strategically than I currently do commander of a Castle myself. It would not be difficult for Admiral Nera and I to work together to coordinate her space forces and my ground forces, since we actually get along unlike my relationships with some of my previous superiors." He chuckled as he finished and sat back down.

Admiral Nera addressed Koth. "I am not familiar with ground tactics beyond the basics. I would need you to tell me when I am making a mistake, or missing something. Can you do that?"

"Why do you think I was kicked out of the New Republic military. I refused to stay silent when my superior ordered foolish tactics and got people killed." General Koth responded. "I promise to be polite about it when mistakes are being made, but I will not stay silent"

"I can live with that." Admiral Nera nodded.

Kaden's voice was heard next. "All in favor?" Everyone nodded their heads in ascent. "Then the motion is passed. The next item up for vote is the reduction in size of this council from seven to five. Both General Koth and Dera Kirik have voiced their concerns that their positions are not needed. With General Koth now being subordinate to Admiral Nera, this is a conflict of interest, one that he has asked to be resolved in this way. Dera, on the other hand, has different reasons."

Dera stood and took a moment before speaking. "I think me being on the council isn't needed. It is pretty simple. Most of what I do already involves Kaden, and I pretty much report to him anyway. The remainder of my duties fall either under either Tonin, Ferol, or Feth. What I am asking is for my current position as city planning and construction be placed subordinate to Kaden's position as head of the council. Between General Koth and I both stepping down from the council, it leaves the council in a good position. We are eliminating two redundant positions, and leave the council stable with all concerns still being voiced." She sat upon concluding her thoughts.

Kaden once again called for a vote. "Are all in favor of removing two of the seven council seats with no replacement?" And again he saw seven heads nod. "Then the motion is passed. The council thanks you for your service Dera Kirik and Koth. May your futures be bright and prosperous."

Both nodding, they stood and began walking toward the door. General Koth turned before reaching it. "Admiral. I will be in my office across from yours for the rest of the day. When you are ready for a briefing on current ground forces, let me know and you will have it." Smiling, he resumed his exit.


	32. 31 Examination

Chapter Thirty One

 **Praesidium** Command Center (Year 6, Day 82, 1130 hours)

General Koth sat at his desk verifying the status of all ground forces under his command. He had an impressive force, one he could be proud of. Under his command were forces that represented a massive amount of firepower, some of which could be projected into orbit from the planet's surface. The only deficiency was the operational _Castle_ Mobile Fortresses under his command. Of the thirty he had, only fifteen had commanders, since training them did take time. He expected in the next month to have the remainder of them operational with the appropriate personnel.

A buzz from the door alerted him to the presence outside the office. "Come in." He called.

Admiral Nera entered as the door opened for her. No emotion showed on her face as she approached the desk and sat in a chair across from General Koth. She was silent as she stared at him, still showing no sign of the state of her thoughts. After a few moments, she spoke. "I have one question for you before we begin the briefing. Why? You have been on the council since it started. Over the years, we haven't always agreed, yet you wanted to remove your voice from the council. You could have done this any time over the last few years, yet you wait till I am out of the hospital from injuries to step down. So my question is simple. Why? Why now? Why not earlier?"

With a sad smile, General Koth paused a moment before he answered. He had known this question would come up, and would not lie about his answer. "It is for several reasons. Before we left our old galaxy, I never knew you. I didn't know what you could or couldn't do, didn't know who you were. Over the last few years, I have watched your actions and listened to your words. I have seen how you handle stressful situations and how you deal with mistakes. You have never disowned your mistakes, and have always been the first to look for ways to fix them. You are adaptable, and open to suggestions. You have no problem using a plan you did not come up with. Even in the council meetings, you had no problem accepting advice or admitting you had made a mistake. I see you as someone I would be happy to have as a commander."

Pausing for a moment, Koth continued. "As for stepping down from the council itself, the army has always been subordinate to the fleet, and for good reason. History has shown that an army cannot operate entirely on its own, and requires fleet support from time to time to maintain security. It was either you become my subordinate or I become yours. I would rather it be this way since I have no clue as to space combat, and it is far more difficult to learn than ground combat. This means that you will not have as much to learn compared to what I would have to learn were the situation reversed. Then there is the meeting I had with Kaden. I expressed my desire to step down from the council and it coincided with Kaden's desire that you take more of a commanding role in military matters. Since I will be your second in command, Kaden also thought I would be perfect for ensuring the security of the Grand Admiral. So from now on, If you leave the planet, I go along too with as part of your protection detail."

"What protection detail?" Admiral Nera's voice rose as she spoke.

General Koth smiled. "It is quite simple. As commander of all military forces, as well as council member, you are too important to move around unprotected. Any time you are off planet, you will have a security detachment with you at all times. Due to this, we have reactivated some of our former security forces. Saber and Rapier teams are now at full strength, and will be your security detachments."

* * *

 **Atlantis** (Year 6, Day 77, 1330 hours)

"That was decidedly unpleasant. I really wish they would have held off on inoculating everyone until we could work out a safer version of the vaccine." Maj Sheppard commented as he exited the stargate.

Dr Beckett agreed. "Sacrificing half their population to prevent the Wraith from feeding on them was going too far. I don't care how afraid they are, it was wholesale murder."

"More like suicide." Maj Sheppard replied. "They did vote on it. As soon as the Wraith find out the drug exists, the Hoffans are as good as dead. The Wraith cannot afford to let them or the drug survive."

Dr Weir approached, asking for clarification as she did. "I assume from your comments that they used the drug even though it would likely kill many of those who took it?"

"Unfortunately." Dr Beckett responded. "They just killed half their own people instead of waiting for a better serum to be developed. Given enough time, we could have been able to reduce the casualties, or maybe find a solution to prevent thousands of people from dying."

"That is not good news." Dr Weir sighed as she spoke. "Meet in the conference room for a debriefing in ten minutes."

* * *

 **Traveler Fleet** (Year 6, Day 79, 2130 hours)

Larrin was impressed. Instead of taking a week to get the three badly aged ships back to hyperspace capable, it had taken less than four days. This meant the fleet of rag tag ships could seek help sooner in an effort to prevent any further losses due to breakdowns. After verification that all of the fleet was able to make the jump, they had begun the trip to the edge of the system one of her crewmen had determined would give them a chance to survive long term. With so many of the Traveler fleet ships being in various states of disrepair, ranging from barely operational to should have been scrapped decades ago, it was a miracle they had lasted this long.

The most crucial part of this trip was making contact with whoever was inhabiting the system they were headed for. This was why they would drop out of hyperspace on the outside edge of the system. It would give them a chance to escape if the locals proved hostile. Waiting just outside the system would also allow whoever was there a chance to talk before anyone was threatened. With the Traveler fleet slowly dwindling over the centuries due to ship losses, too many had been left behind on many planets. Considering how scattered the descendants of the Travelers were at this point, this may be the last chance they had to survive together.

* * *

 **Praesidium** Data Center (Year 6, Day 80, 1030 hours)

Admiral Nera stood at the podium in a conference room near the deepest part of the massive data center. Seated around the tables in front of the podium were the first Naval Academy class. Even though the academy had not yet been completed, it had been decided to begin training using former military and those who had crewed ships before. Nearly a hundred pairs of eyes watched as the holo recordings of a space battle played out on the massive viewscreen to the side of the podium. As the recording ended, the lights in the room returned to normal brightness.

"Having seen the recordings of that particular battle, does anyone see any flaws in the tactics either side used?" Admiral Nera's question was heard by all in the room.

A petite brunette spoke first. "It looked like the Imperial ships expected the other side to retreat, expecting just their presence to win for them."

"It was a common tactic, if the enemy fears you they will run instead of fight. Show no mercy, and no one will challenge you." Admiral Nera replied. "The problem is, even fear can be overcome. If you cause too much fear, your enemy will fight you in spite of being outnumbered or outgunned. This is one of the reasons the Empire fell. They spread too much fear. Any other observations?"

"The Rebels seemed slow to react to the movements of the Empire's ships." Commented a middle aged man from the rear of the room.

"That is why they lost. At the time, the Rebels were very uncoordinated. No clear chain of command existed yet to plan out effective strategies and tactics. This battle showed several important points, even though the Rebels lost. With the higher numbers of combat ships, even though they were outgunned, they were able to inflict significant losses to the Empire's fleet. Each lost Rebel ship represented a very small loss in total firepower, whereas the loss of even one Imperial ship reduced their firepower by a significant percentage. All told, the Empire lost almost half the fleet to either complete destruction, or enough damage that the capital ship had to be completely overhauled. The Rebels may have lost half their firepower, yet most of the ships escaped." Admiral Nera concluded. "For your assignment tonight, you may use this room. I want you to look into the battle that took place over the planet Hoth during the Rebellion. I want you to evaluate the Empire's forces and tactics. Each of you will compose a report on the failures of that force in their mission, and what tactics you would use to accomplish the mission they had. Dismissed for today."

Stepping down from the podium, Admiral Nera made her way to leave. She was happy with those chosen to be in this class of the Academy. They seemed able to learn from the mistakes others had made before. Hopefully by the time this class graduated, the next command ship would be ready. There was another group of crew members currently being unused. Nearly two hundred crew from the Future and Hope were on reserve in case needed. They would be better suited to rotating in with the new officers being trained. It would give the newer crew members the opportunity to learn from more experienced personnel.

* * *

 **Praesidium** Data Center (Year 6, Day 80, 1430 hours)

Feth office was cluttered. Between boxes filled with data cards, pieces of alien technology, and various personal items, his desk was the only place clear enough to work. Currently, he was reading over the reports on the alloys that made up the massive salvaged ship they were currently storing in a warehouse. There were reports from thirty different scientists describing their experiments and results on the composition and strength of different pieces. More than one new element had been discovered through these experiments. There were several other reports of great interest.

The metallurgy report contained information on over a dozen new alloys. Three of the alloys were better than any known for armor plating. Two others were near perfect power conductors that would reduce power loss if used in place of current power conduits. Then there was the metallic substance they had discovered which was somewhat flexible, yet resistant to extreme stresses.

Then there were the thousands of crystals that had been found. Many were part of the ship's systems, yet some had been found loose. Three scientists were currently cataloging where each was found. So far no way to discern their purpose had been identified. They had to have a purpose, or they wouldn't have been connected to so many different parts of the ship.

The only real progress was on the thousands of squid like objects they had found in several places in the wreckage. It was likely they were a weapon or probe of some kind. How they operated was unknown, as was most of their. No known conventional or nuclear explosives had been found in any of them. Even without locating a propulsion system, it was still the most likely explanation considering the ejection ports on several locations on the hull of the ship. The compounds that made up over half the 'squids' were new, including the soft outer shell. It would likely take months or years to completely examine them.


	33. 32 Proximity

Chapter Thirty Two

 **Praesidium** (Year 6, Day 81, 1900 hours)

Alarms sounded in the command center, creating a small frenzied microcosm of panic. Emergency procedures that had only been performed as exercises were now used for their intended purpose. First was the raising of the planetary and city shields at full power. Simultaneously, a recorded message was sent to all five council members alerting them to the emergency. Within a few minutes, all twenty five planetary ion cannons were powered up for use. No public notice was sent out, as the threat was unverified, it would cause unneeded panic.

Within five minutes, the first member of the council arrived. Admiral Nera, followed by General Koth, entered the control room. "What set off the alarms?"

"Ma'am, ships have been detected just outside the system. About sixty ships, as yet unidentified. From the images and scans, they do not appear to be Wraith ships. They are too far out to get any more details." The response from the Officer in Charge was short, but contained the necessary information.

"Put it up on the holo." Nera ordered. "I want to see what we are dealing with."

Within moments, the holo display came to life, revealing a low resolution view of the distant fleet. While few details could be observed from the extreme range, a couple were obvious. The first was that the ships were not of any Wraith design they had encountered before. The second was that one of the ships appeared to be out of control, venting atmosphere causing it to slowly spin out of formation.

"Any transmissions from the ships?" General Koth asked.

"Negative. At least none we can identify. If they are using short range systems or radio waves it may be days before the signals make it far enough in system to be detected. From where they are located, at sub-light speeds, it would take them a week to make it past the outermost of our surveillance border." Came the OIC's reply. "More bad news is the sensors for this galaxy's version of hyperdrive did not detect their approach. Either they came out too far away, or the system doesn't work."

"We can let Feth know later. Right now I want closer eyes on that fleet. They popped in at that location for a reason. Either they know we are here and did not want to jump in on top of us, or they don't know and are being very cautious. Until we know, keep all of the _Tombstones_ on standby and all planetary defenses up." Admiral Nera commanded. "Which fleets are in orbit right now? I know Omen Fleet is out on a defensive action."

"Currently, Omen and Specter are deployed. Since Harbinger fleet is down currently until the PSF Stalwart is repaired, all non-operational ships from Specter were swapped out for Harbinger's operational ships. We have barely forty percent strength on the remaining ships of Harbinger Fleet. Only Guardian Fleet is here and at full strength." The OIC's response was not a good one.

"Damn. Inform Guardian Fleet they will be taking point on this one. Tell Admiral Sal to use the new contact protocols. We don't want to provoke hostilities unless there is no other choice."

The remaining four members of the council were entering the room as Admiral Nera gave her orders for Guardian Fleet. They made little noise as they stood near the rear of the room observing the current situation. As determined by the council several years earlier, if threats appeared in system, Admiral Nera would be in command until the threat was removed. This prevented the hesitation and delays that had plagued many governments of the past, including the Old and New Republics.

"Transfer all remaining operational ships of Harbinger Fleet to Guardian Fleet. With only one command ship available, I do not want to take any chances. Also, send messages to Omen and Specter. I want them back here as soon as their current missions are complete. If they are needed, we should be able to hold out that long with the planetary shields." Admiral Nera continued. Glancing over at General Koth, she added. "Place all ground forces on stand by. Have them ready in case we need them. Have the four _Castles_ currently on planet deploy eight kilometers outside town, in a defensive formation. Their ion cannons would be a welcome addition to the defenses already activated."

* * *

 **Praesidium system** , outer edge (Year 6, Day 81, 2000 hours)

All one hundred thirty one capital ships of Guardian Fleet exited hyperspace, at a distance that would take about an hour at sub-light speeds to reach the unknown fleet. Upon reverting to normal space, fighters began deploying in a defensive screen while the capital ships slowed to a near halt. Admiral Decard Sal, once a smuggler, had a fair amount of experience on unknown contacts. Before joining the Endeavour Project, he had spent most of his youth and adulthood in the edges of the New Republic.

"Get me scans on those ships. I want to know everything we can before we get any closer." Admiral Sal ordered. "We hold position here for now. No sudden moves. If they move, I want to know immediately."

A chorus of affirmation was his response as he began reading the new scanning reports being downloaded to his data pad. It was interesting reading. Power levels were remarkably low, with quite a few of the ships showing unpowered sections and energy fluctuations. There were also signs of weapons ports, yet far fewer than he would have thought ships of this galaxy would have, and most of them also had no power. Most of the ships also showed evidence of some kind of energy shielding, with no way to tell exactly how durable they were.

Of more interest was the hull scans, which surprised him considering how damaged the ships were. Between buckled hull plates and obvious holes, it was evident these ships were in no condition for a battle. At least five of the ships had bent or twisted frames that should have put them in a scrap yard decades ago.

* * *

 **Traveler Fleet** (Year 6, Day 81, 2000 hours)

The Traveler fleet had exited hyperspace barely an hour before, and already problems had surfaced. First was one of the larger ships in the fleet suffered a major failure of several critical systems, which had vented atmosphere from an entire deck before it could be stopped. Fortunately, those on that deck were able to get to safety before they would have perished. Due to the loss of power over most of that ship, as well as the venting of such a large volume of air, the ship was in a slow spin and unable to correct course. There were several injuries from the main power relay suffering exploding which began a cascade failure of nearly all systems, only leaving life support and emergency lighting.

Several smaller ships in the fleet had docked with the beleaguered ship and were able to stop the spin as well as move it to a safer location near the center of the fleet. Barely had this been done when over a hundred ships just appeared not far from them.

"Larrin! A fleet just appeared about forty five minutes from here by sub-light. I am detecting massive power levels from them!"

"Are they Wraith? And how many ships?" Larrin shouted back.

"At least one hundred. Wait. I am picking up more contacts, four hundred now. Make that six hundred. Looks like the large ships are deploying small ships, similar in size to the Wraith darts. And no, they are not Wraith."

"Show me." Larrin moved over to one of the more functional monitors as it began displaying images of the newly arrived fleet. "Oh hell. How big is that one in the middle? Are these power levels accurate?"

"From what we can tell, it is a little under two kilometers long, and unless the scanners are more broken than usual, the power levels are accurate."

Larrin closed her eyes. "How long till they reach us? And how many ships are unable to jump back into hyperspace?"

"The council ship is still without power, and no word on when or if it can be fixed. That is the only ship that will not be able to retreat if needed. As for that fleet out there, they are barely moving. The count is now over two thousand, mostly the small ships. Just from what I am reading on the scanners, of they attack, we are dead."

"Yeah I see that too. Since we got the fleet into this mess, we have to get them out again. Alert all ships to remain here in formation. No sudden moves. If anything happens to us, they are to immediately head to our rendezvous point. We are going to slowly approach that fleet alone." Larrin ordered.

Within a few moments, a single ship broke off from the Traveler fleet, and began heading toward the new arrivals. Larrin's ship was larger than some of the ships she was approaching, but still dwarfed by the massive white wedge shaped ship at the center of the formation ahead. At it's current speed, it would take almost two hours for her ship to reach the other fleet, allowing time for the Traveler's Council ship to be repaired. At least that was the plan. Buying time was the only option available.

* * *

 **PSF Bastion** , outer edge of Praesidium system (Year 6, Day 81, 2015 hours)

"Admiral, they made their move. One ship, a medium sized one from their fleet is heading toward us very slowly. About two hours till they reach us."

"Thank you. It is a smart move. They have one disabled ship that we can see, maybe more. They don't want to provoke an attack, so they are sending a messenger. Any transmissions yet?" Admiral Sal asked.

"Negative. At least none we can decode. We are picking up some signals that are unknown. They are not in the frequency range we have equipment to listen in on."

"Understood. Looks like we will need to be patient. It is clear they are making a move, but what that move is we don't know. Stalling tactics are possible, or a feint. Then again it could be exactly what it appears to be, an attempt at contact." Admiral Sal concluded. "Lets see how this plays out."

The slow aspect of the encounter gave plenty of time for thoughts concerning contingency plans regarding the unknown fleet. Admiral Decard Sal spent the time going over scanning reports. The lone ship approaching his position seemed to be in better shape than most of the ships it had arrived with. The hull appeared intact, though still showed signs of damage from impacts and energy weapons. Power levels were also fairly stable, giving evidence of being maintained in some fashion.

The waiting continued until the approaching ship came to a stop five thousand kilometers off the bow of the PSF Bastion. The tension from playing a waiting game increased as the next move would likely have to come from Admiral Decard Sal. Glancing at his data pad one last time, he forwarded the message he had written to the comm officer to be sent to the unknown ship.

* * *

 **Larrin's ship** (Year 6, Day 81, 2205 hours)

"They are transmitting something."

Larrin growled. "More details would be helpful. Can you tell me what the message is?"

"Not sure. It looks to be radio waves but they are blanketing nearly every frequency. Got it! Audio message only. Playing it now."

An overhead speaker came to life as a man's baritone voice spoke. "This is Admiral Decard Sal of the Praesidium Space Force. You are trespassing in a protected system. Please state your intentions."

"Can we transmit back on one of the frequency bands they are using?" Larrin asked.

"Should be able to. What do you want to send?"

Larrin thought a moment. "Send this message..."


End file.
